


heartache

by Crynelium



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Angst and Humor, Bittersweet Ending, Canon Compliant, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Illustrated, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Unrequited Love, i literally cannot write if there isn't humor, tags to be added if i gotta add more
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-07-24
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:00:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 25,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24454846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crynelium/pseuds/Crynelium
Summary: Adora was with Catra now, and it was at that moment Glimmer fully realized what the word aching had truly meant.one-sided glimmadora, & a very glimmer-centric fic
Relationships: Adora & Glimmer (She-Ra), Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Bow & Glimmer (She-Ra), Catra & Glimmer (She-Ra), One-Sided Adora/Glimmer (She-Ra), minor Perfuma/Scorpia
Comments: 97
Kudos: 168





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> theres a bunch more chapters coming out after this, i just need to write it..... HAHHA. i've prewritten some stuff already too!
> 
> I'm not much of a writer, definitely just mostly wrote fluff too, at that. so i hope the angsty emotions were felt here, i worked really hard to verbalize the feelings glimmer was havin, i hope you enjoy! ahh im so excited to write everything

Hurt.

All she could feel was hurt. Her heart pounded with every moment she looked at them, wishing for something she hadn’t realized she wanted until it was too late. 

Adora was with Catra now, and it was at that moment Glimmer fully realized what the word aching had truly meant.

It was that want that stayed with her... Echoing in her mind the possibilities of what could have been if she had just realized sooner. That fear of losing her that never really went away, even when she was happy and laughing with her friends. That defeated acceptance of having to let go of someone that never really was yours to begin with.

Even then, her mind fought against accepting it, especially when she found that it was all insanely unfair.

How was she supposed to stand a chance? Adora spent her whole _life_ with Catra compared to her. She was like a tiny blip in the timeline, only having her for a few years, which even then was strained by the stress of war. 

It felt cruel, like some sort of joke being played, with her as the main star in the ring. She could feel the universe laughing at her, for apparently having the _gall_ to catch feelings. Because of _course_ this was going to happen, and how could she not expect it? She wished she could scream and yell her feelings out, to lay her heart bare, and pick apart all the strands that caused her heartache. She wished she could just reach in and rip out that hollow feeling in her chest that somehow felt heavy with pain.

Her throat started closing up, and her eyes started to get watery. Tears started to prickle, and a sob escaped her mouth, quickly muffled by her burying her face to one of the pillows. She never liked crying but right now that was the only thing that she could think to do, as sobs wracked her body for what felt like forever. She cried her heart out until short gasps of air filled the silence instead of her sobs.

She hugged her pillow tighter, wiping her tears on the fabric. It felt too cold, too lonely to be here, but where else was she going to be? What else was she supposed to do? 

Her heart was just broken, and this was the end of day one.


	2. Breakeven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What am I gonna to do when the best part of me was always you,  
> And what am I supposed to say when I'm all choked up and you're OK - Breakeven by the Scripts

Bleary eyed, Glimmer woke up, still clutching her pillow close to her chest. Her eyes felt crusty from the night before, and her hands moved to rub them.

Ah… she hasn’t felt this terrible since after getting corrupted by the Black Garnet. It was like a hangover except without the drinking part. Her head pounded and it was probably from all the crying she did.

She felt dull, like her heart simply wasn’t having it today. She breathed in, and looked around her room. It was around 11 am and everything around her looked so terribly bright and peppy. Suddenly Glimmer was wishing Bright Moon hadn’t been so... sparkly. 

The thought of rebranding her style struck her, and she considered this for a few moments. It was never too late to rebrand your style, and besides maybe Adora likes—

A sharp stab of pain goes through her heart at the thought of her friend and she grimaced. It was like a cold rod had been pressed to her chest, burning frost all over it. Apparently it was feeling up to the task of heartache anyway despite feeling dull, she thought, annoyed. She groaned, and covered her face with a pillow. She _wasn’t_ going to allow herself to cry this morning. Last night had been the exception and she was _not_ going to... to..

To what? Mourn for her biggest crush? It’s not like she’s lost her forever, but her heart felt that anyway.

She sighed into her pillow, and stayed like that for a few more moments. Maybe if she stayed here she could pretend that everything was fine and dandy, and that nothing was bothering her. Her bed could just eat her up under all the comforters and fluffy pillows and she’d let it.

And she would’ve gotten away with it too if it weren’t for a certain meddling best friend.

“Glimmer!” A voice filled up the silent ambience of the room. Said queen just buried her face further to her pillow as if that would let her stay in bed a bit longer. She was heartbroken! She was allowed to sleep a little bit in!

…Nevermind the fact that she _always_ slept in anyway, but that wasn't the point.

Footsteps echoed in her room as, who no doubt was Bow, walked to her bedside. Glimmer opened one eye, looking up to her best friend, who looked at her expectantly with crossed arms. The queen’s only response was to shut her eye quickly and bury her face further to her pillow. She heard Bow give an exasperated sigh, before gently rubbing her arm.

“You can’t keep staying in your bed all day, you’ve got to get something to eat.” he said, and she only groaned in response. He was right of course, he was always right, but Glimmer wasn’t about to tell him that. A dark part of her wanted to push him away to leave her to her misery. 

Instead of saying anything though, Glimmer stayed quiet and hoped that the silence would discourage the archer. At this, Bow’s tone changed into something to concern.

“Woah, hold on, is everything okay? Usually you’re asking for five more minutes—“ he said in a teasing tone before sitting down beside her. Despite the tone, he started rubbing his thumb over her back in a comforting manner, which made Glimmer relax a tiny bit. Bow was always really concerned for her, and that made her feel… admittedly better.

“Mmph, it’s nothing.” she grumbled, peeking up from her pillow. She saw Bow’s concerned look, and rolled her eyes. “Really, it’s nothing!” she insisted, sitting up from her bed. 

“If you say so,” Bow said, eyebrows raised and unconvinced, “you still look pretty terrible though. What did you _do_ last night?” he asked. Glimmer stared dumbly at Bow.

“Erm, not important!” she said, nervously laughing. She wasn’t exactly ready to admit she had a full breakdown last night, and thinking about it now, she was probably being melodramatic last night anyway! She’s gone through almost two decades without… dating… why would she need it now?

She can feel herself sighing internally. She was already feeling a bit crazy and she just woke up. 

“Right.” Bow said slowly. “Are you sick? Is that what it is? Do you have a fever?” he asked, leaning over her to press his palm over her forehead.

“Bow!” she protested, swatting his hand away in annoyance, “I’m fine!”

“You’re just acting strange, is all.” he took a pause, thinking for a moment, “Now that I think about it, you left the party last night pretty early. Is there something wrong...?” he gently probed, and Glimmer stiffened.

“I’ll… tell you later, okay?” she said, slowly relaxing, then looks down. She really did want to tell Bow, she usually told everything to him! Just... not now, she’ll do it when she’s ready.

“You can always tell me anything on your mind, Glimmer, or anything to get off your chest.” he smiled, took one of her hands to his own and held it. The queen momentarily thought it was unfair that Bow was good at cheering people. How was she supposed to mope at this rate?? She gave him a small smile anyhow, utterly touched by Bow’s concern.

“Ahahah, yeah…” Glimmer trailed, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly with her free hand. Then in a bright flash of light and sparkles, teleported by the door “But! Oh! Look at the time, I’m probably late to that thing, haha, I guess we’ll just have to talk about this later—!“ She made for the door, walking at a fast pace and fixing her hair as she did. 

“Wait— Glimmer! Wait!” Bow said, almost tripping as he stood up and chased after his friend. 

* * *

The feast last night to celebrate their victory against Horde Prime seemed like a crazy one, looking around at all the mess the palace staff was still trying to clean up the mess. She and Bow were walking towards the dining room, and the servants had bowed to her as a formality as they swept the floors clean of the confetti on the floors, or took down party decorations. Glimmer just nodded at them, and they went right back to work cleaning it up. 

She almost felt bad about leaving too early because it did seem fun, but seeing Adora was too much. She felt a small pang of pain in her heart at the thought.

She shook her head. She wasn’t going to let that bring her down, there are more important things to do than mope around now that she wasn’t in bed. Moping hours are exclusive in the bedroom! The thought of letting any of her angst out in public was unthinkable. 

And besides, after Bow had mentioned eating, her stomach was starting to growl. She didn’t eat much last night and now she was getting peckish. The sound of food was getting better and better. 

She heard the sounds of running footsteps, and the next thing she knew, she’d been pushed forward by someone bumping into her from behind.

“Oof—!” the sound was pushed out of her, as she heard something tumble down to the floor. She turned around in bewilderment. “Frosta?”

“Oww...” the younger girl winced, rubbing her behind. She looked up to Glimmer, eyes wide. “Oh, Glimmer, I’m really sorry!” The queen could only really look down in shock.

“No, um, it’s okay,” she said finally, offering a hand to Frosta. “I’m just surprised you’re still here. I really thought some of you guys would be heading back to your own kingdoms.”

“A bunch of other princesses stayed overnight!” she answered, taking Glimmer’s hand and standing up. “I didn’t want to go back yet, so I uh, stayed.” she finished, looking sheepish.

“Oh.”

“Yeah! I think Mermista left for Salineas last night but that’s all I really know.” she said, then perked up. “I really missed you last night, Glimmer! Where’d ya go?”

“Oh, er—“ Glimmer really wished she could come up with a lie so she didn’t have to think about that breakdown. It was embarrassing to think about. 

“I did some....” she looked to the side, thinking, “...stuff, but they’re done now, so you don’t have to worry about that!” she finished quickly.

There’s a beat where Frosta just stares at Glimmer. The queen could feel sweat forming under her gaze.

“Okay!” she accepted simply, and Glimmer lets out an internal sigh of relief. “Why do you look so terrible?”

At that, her eye twitches. She didn’t really appreciate having her appearance insulted twice in a row. She looked to her side and saw Bow trying not to laugh. Before she could ask for help, Frosta had more to say.

“Don’t you have to wake up early to do your royal duties?” she asked. Glimmer was momentarily frustrated, she’s allowed to sleep in! But when the younger girl looked so earnest and curious, it was hard to stay mad at her.

“I don’t, actually.” she answered, “And I don’t look terrible.” she quickly added, acutely aware that she did in fact look terrible right now, but she wasn’t going to admit that. “Bow and I were just on the way to the dining hall to get some breakfast—“

“—Technically lunch!” Bow added.

“ _Breakfast—_ ” Glimmer reiterated, ignoring Bow’s input. “Are you going to come with?” she asks. Frosta shakes her head.

“No thanks! I already ate.” she said, beaming. Glimmer smiled at her. Why were kids so cute? Frosta would hate her for thinking that, but honestly this kid was just... incredibly cute. She was so annoyed with her in the beginning but it was really starting to feel like Frosta was a sister she never had. It was... kind of hard to picture her now as the same person running a kingdom on her own. 

“Okay, Frosta. We’ll just catch up with you later then.” she simply replied, and Frosta only nodded. She turned around, summoning an ice gauntlet to her arms, waving them wildly in the air and running off to the halls. 

Glimmer and Bow watched her go by, before they resumed walking to the dining room.

When they got to the entrance to the dining room, Adora was already there. She was sitting in front of the table, with a plate filled with various kinds of foods. She looked deep in thought, and barely noticed it when Glimmer walked in.

Glimmer bit her lip upon seeing her, but otherwise tried to have a neutral expression.

It was unfair how cute she looked, with her brows furrowed in deep thought. It was unfair how Adora’s slight pout seemed to give Glimmer’s heart a little tap dance. She seemed utterly focused on her plate, with the same kind of expression she had when she was coming up with battle plans from way before.

She’d always thought that there was something about that gaze that was strangely alluring, and now that she knew why... her traitorous heart twinged with ache.

She breathed in, trying to contain her feelings. 

Adora’s concentration on her plate broke when she noticed Bow and Glimmer entering. Her head turned to their direction and suddenly a smile found itself on her face. She waved to them, happily.

“Hey guys! Bow, Glimmer!” she said. The queen smiled and waved back, while Bow beamed back at the blonde.

“Hey Adora! I only came here to fetch her Royal Sleepiness from bed.” he said, gesturing to Glimmer beside him. Adora laughed at the comment, snorting a little bit. 

In all honesty, Glimmer didn’t process what Bow had said because the sound of Adora’s laughter filled her ears and erased any thought in her mind other than how pretty it sounded. Her laughter trails when Glimmer doesn’t say anything in return, leaving the blonde confused.

“What..? Is there something on my face?” Adora said, her hand coming up to her face to pat it self-consciously. Whatever spell was on Glimmer was broken, and she shook her head. A slight blush forms on her cheeks when she realized she was just staring.

“Er, no there isn’t,” Glimmer can only smile apologetically, “I was just thinking of something. It, um, doesn’t matter.” she says, and took a seat on the far end of the table, right beside Adora’s. “Are you trying to feed an army or something?” she teased, glancing briefly at the huge plate that Adora had in front of her.

“Oh, this?” She looks at it too for a moment, before looking back at Glimmer. “I’m just trying to figure out what Catra would like from this plate.” she said excitedly. “We only had ration bars in the Horde back then… and I’m not actually sure if she’s had anything like this before.” She looked away, but Glimmer can still see her gaze turn soft, no doubt thinking of Catra. “I just… thought it would be a nice gesture to show the things I like in Bright Moon.” 

“That’s… really sweet of you to do, Adora.” Glimmer is able to choke that out without too much trouble. Adora didn’t even notice, and instead grabbed a sizable chicken leg from the plate in front of her and took a bite from it.

“The food here is alfays shoo _good_ Glimber” she said with her mouth full, munching happily. “I fon’t think I can efer get used to it.” The queen can only watch the blonde pick and eat from the various plates available on the table. Her stomach twisted uncomfortably, and Glimmer wasn’t sure if it was from hunger or from her feelings. 

“Catra’s going to love this one for sure.” Adora continued, smiling softly. Despite it being barely above a whisper, Glimmer just freezes on the spot.

She couldn’t say anything to that, her heart just couldn’t fake any sort of happy response to it. Slowly, she gets her own meal from the available dishes on the table, nodding along to whatever else Adora might’ve said.

At that moment, Catra chose to come in, stretching her arms and yawning as she did. She walked over to Adora, wrapping her arms from behind and nuzzling into her neck. Adora can only give a light giggle. 

“Hey Adora…” she said softly, and the blonde leaned in to her touch, turning her head slightly to kiss her cheek. A flush appears on both girls as they both enjoy being in each other’s presence.

Try as she might to stop, Glimmer couldn’t help but stare at this. It was like watching a terrible accident, knowing she should look away, but some sort of fascination glues her eyes to it. Her hand trembles slightly and her breathing just stalls.

It was when Adora tilted her chin to kiss her softly on the lips did Glimmer have the ability to look away.

She took a moment, before pushing her chair away from the table to stand up. She suddenly wasn’t very hungry anymore, and a sick feeling started bubbling in her. Her stomach twisted to knots and only one question started reverberating in her mind.

_Why couldn’t it have been me…?_

She couldn’t stay any longer. She had to get away from here. From them. 

Her plate was left untouched on the table as she turned away from it. She felt the blood roaring in her ears as she started taking steps, each turning her colder and colder. 

“Wait, Glim—” she heard Adora start to say, and her breath is caught in her throat hearing that nickname. “I’ve got something to ask you.”

“Y-yes…?” Glimmer said, unable to keep the crack in her voice hearing the nickname, until she cleared it with a cough. She plastered on a fake smile and turned around to face her friend. “What’s up, Adora…?

“I was just wondering if—” she flushed further for a moment, before Catra took her hand in hers to entwine their fingers together, as if to comfort her. “Catra could stay in Brightmoon with me.”

It was like an insult to injury, and Glimmer could feel time stop. She could feel everyone’s stares boring into her, especially Adora’s own hopeful blue eyes looking into her own.

“She—” Adora said again, breaking that brief silence that felt like forever spanned into a second, “She doesn’t have anywhere else to go and… I don’t want her to be alone. Not anymore.”

There’s a beat of silence that fills the air. Glimmer contemplated, even for a brief moment, saying no, but just looking at Adora and how hopeful she looked… she didn’t have the heart.

“Sure.” she finally replied, in this toneless voice. Adora smiled this bright, amazing smile that made Glimmer’s knees start shaking. Her expression was so beautiful on her features but the context of it made her stomach flutter uneasily. 

There were too many conflicting emotions and she felt sick. Her heart was in her throat, trying desperately to jump out, but she wouldn’t let it. She turned away once more, taking further care to walk away faster from the room, ignoring that sinking feeling in her gut. 

Her skin prickled uncomfortably and once she’s out of the room, fully sure she’s out of earshot, she gave out a big breath that she’d been holding.

Why was this happening to her? What did she do to deserve this? She was starting to feel unhinged again, breathing a bit faster than she should. She leaned against a wall, burying her face in her hands. She was _this_ close to crying again, and she needed a moment for herself.

“Uh, Glimmer…?” a voice broke out, and she instantly recognized it. Bow.

She took in a sharp gasp of air, trying to hide her feelings behind a stone cold expression. Bow’s voice still sounded pretty far away, so she had time to collect her feelings.

“You’re acting super weird again.” he continued, unbothered by the lack of responses Glimmer was giving him. “I can tell it’s bothering you, and I’m not gonna let you bottle it up…!” his voice echoed around the halls. Instead of responding, Glimmer just hugged her arms.

“I know this castle as much as you do! You can’t hide forever.” he tried again. “And besides you haven’t eaten yet! I’m not about to let you get hungry either.” Glimmer smiled a little bit, touched by Bow’s concern. 

“I’m just going to keep talking until you respond. Or until I find you. Either of the two.” footsteps echoed around the hall along with his voice. “But seriously though, why _are_ you acting weird? I can’t think of any reason for you to be like this right now.” he said, and gradually, Glimmer could hear his voice getting nearer and nearer to her.

“I mean, you were pretty normal— _I guess_ , before lunch, so what happened?”. There’s a brief pause where Glimmer could only assume he’s thinking about it a bit deeper. “It was only after Catra entered when you started acting weird. Again.”

“Did Catra do something? Well, beyond what she already _did_?” His tone gets a slight edge to it, as if contemplating the worst.

“...Bow...” Glimmer started, barely a whisper of her voice, and she cleared her throat. “B-Bow… wait…”

“I mean, you looked pretty sick too when Adora asked you that question. That’s gotta be connected.” he continued, either not hearing Glimmer or unmoved. His tone grows more determined as he keeps talking. “She was asking if Catra could stay, didn’t she? You kind of looked sick anyway before she asked that…”

“Bow…!” she started to say urgently. “What are you… thinking—?“ Already she could imagine the gears in his head turning, a small feeling of panic rises in her chest.

“Wait a second…” Realization struck Bow faster than Glimmer could stop it from happening. “Glimmer, are you... in love with Ado— Mmph!” he’s suddenly interrupted by Glimmer teleporting to him, clamping her hand over his mouth before he could finish, and teleporting right back to her original spot.

“Bow!!” she whisper-yelled, “Y-you can’t just yell things out like that in _public_!”. Bow could only mumble heatedly into her hand. When Glimmer took her hand away, Bow jumped again to continue what he was saying.

“You’re in love with Ador—!“ he’s interrupted again by the queen covering his mouth, leaving him to struggle against her grasp.

“You don’t have to scream it out the second time!” she said, exasperated. “Fine! Yes, I am! Shut up!”. He continued to mumble against her hand before Glimmer took it off again.

“You should’ve told me! You didn’t have to keep it a secret, you know?”

“I know… I just.. needed a bit of time. I only… found out last night anyway.”

“Was that why you—“

“Yes, that’s why I looked terrible,” annoyance seeped into her tone, but Bow gave her a cheesy smile. They both taper into silence, and eventually Bow’s expression drops.

With silence enveloping the both of them, Glimmer slid down to the floor. Bow follows suit, wrapping his arm around his friend.

“But… that does suck a lot, Glimmer.” he said after a while. “Are you sure you’re ready to be living with those two then?”

“No.” she laughed bitterly, “but what else was I going to say? I doubt Adora would stay here without Catra.”

“You’re right about that, but you can’t be around them if it’s going to make you…” he gestured to her, “feel like this.”

“I know…” she says defeatedly. “I still want to try, though…” There is silence again as both of them take in each other’s presence.

“You’ve been crying.” he said, matter of factly. Glimmer could just about imagine his expression of concern, and sniffled. “This is going to hurt you way more than you’re probably prepared for, Glimmer.” 

“I just… don’t want to lose her completely… You get that, don’t you, Bow?” she said softly, and Bow only ran his fingers through her hair soothingly as a reply. She felt herself relaxing more. How was Bow so good at this…? 

She heard him give a sigh, and he moved to hug her.

“...Okay.” he finally said, after a while. “I trust you then. I’ve got your back no matter what, and I’m not afraid to kick She Ra’s butt for you.” he finished, and Glimmer laughed a real laugh. 

It felt good… to not hold that secret on her own. She wrapped her arms around Bow and buried her face to his chest. Bow only responded in kind, hugging her tighter. He didn’t say anything when Glimmer started crying softly, and instead just held her closer.

They spent a few moments together in silence, and Glimmer was glad that Bow was there to offer his support. 

She has this… She has to believe she has it. She breathed in, then out, letting go of the tension in her shoulders and in her mind. 

Maybe it wasn’t gone completely, but… it was a start. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope u guys are enjoying 😳. there's almost definitely grammatical errors there, and i am so sorry. i hate proofreading, and ive proofreaded it like... 4 times at this point. my attention span Cannot.


	3. Busyhead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Weeks have passed by, and Glimmer's coped by avoiding anyone that made her feel stressed by throwing herself to work. Until she can't, lmao.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hide your secrets, disguise your weakness  
> And lose yourself inside your busy head - Busyhead by Noah Kahan

The next few weeks in Brightmoon were hazy, at least to Glimmer’s recollection. She was buried under piles and piles of paperwork. Having to deal with post-Horde Etheria was apparently filled to the brim with treatises and inter-kingdom interactions. It was hard to have time for herself to do frankly anything.

And… to be honest? She was kinda glad for that.

It meant having an excuse to avoid Adora, or seeing Catra. Or even just, plain not having to deal with how she felt about either of them. She didn’t have to deal with it if she didn’t even have the time for it.

She couldn’t even begin trying to decipher the whole mess of emotions she felt about them anyway. Everytime she thought of Catra, there was a feeling of anger in her, like a pot with its lid barely holding back the steaming water. She felt guilty for being mad at her. It felt like she didn’t, or maybe even _shouldn’t_ be mad at her because everything was over and dusted but… still anger stewed inside her. 

Anyhow, she felt uneasy any time she looked at her. 

As for Adora… her heart just ached at the thought of her. She didn’t want to admit the amount of sleepless nights she had before she could finally go to bed without crying. She missed her, like truly missed her, but whatever interactions she had with her now were just awkward small talk, bumbling through her words. She honestly missed waking up and seeing her in the same bed as her, when Adora snuck in her quarters when she felt too lonely in hers to sleep...

She shook her head. She was working. No more ‘ _feelings’_ thoughts. It was too distracting.

That said, throwing herself to work was a good distraction but it didn’t really make it any less challenging. It was… more than difficult, threading through the warring bureaucracies of the wartorn planet. Being queen of a significantly large kingdom meant that she also had to take care of most of the refugees whose towns had been destroyed. That more or less kept her hands full, but occasionally the Princess Alliance had lent a helping hand. She couldn’t even begin to thank Perfuma for her floral powers assisting with the rebuilding process, nor Frosta who was more than willing to share the load of taking in displaced refugees. 

She sighed. It was more than a headache at this point, trying to organize the logistics out of this whole mess. The more she worked, the more she realized that there was so much to be done. It seemed that defeating Horde Prime was only the beginning of fixing everything.

She rubbed her temple gingerly. It would be so much better too if she could actually _be there_ instead of being stuck in the palace, dealing with dumb stupid paperwork. What she was doing here didn’t matter when the people who needed the help the most were suffering! What was the point in her just sitting here anyway? Wasn’t the point of being _queen_ mean she could bring in actual change? 

Her royal advisors, despite her sufferings, still brought on paperwork upon paperwork to her, and she had to sludge through documents after documents requiring her supervision. She felt jumpy, twitchy, the more she had to sit at the palace, or listen to more of the reports her general had to offer about mundane details. God! She felt like screaming.

All she wanted to do was crawl to bed, maybe into someone’s strong arms, tucking her safely into her chest, with blue eyes shining in concern and love and—

NOPE!

She erased that thought quickly from her mind, and furiously began reading the statements from the papers in front of her in an attempt to forget whatever that was. Whoever said out of sight, out of mind was clearly full of crap.

A knock on the door disturbed her thoughts, and she turned around to see one of her generals standing there, peeking behind the door. Her eyes were sharp and alert, which made Glimmer self-conscious.

“Your Majesty, you are currently needed at the War Room to discuss urgent matters regarding bandits terrorizing local towns.” she said simply. She sat up straighter at this. 

“Bandits?” she asked, and her general nodded.

“Affirmative, there’ll be more said at the War Room, your Majesty.” she answered, “Your presence is required to fully start it.” she finished. Inside Glimmer, a feeling sparked. This was definitely an opportunity to get out of the palace. It wasn’t anything she could afford to lose.

“I understand, general.” she said, “I’ll be on my way.” The tall woman nodded, and closed the door. Glimmer was left to her lonesome, and she felt like she was vibrating in excitement. _Finally_ something was happening. She breathed, trying to calm herself down, but the smile on her face didn’t fade away. She disappeared in a poof of glitter and sparkles.

* * *

She reappeared once more in front of the giant door leading to the War Room. Excited, she pushed the door open, the taste of freedom already on her tongue. The door gave way to reveal a huge table with her General and royal advisors sitting close by, talking casually to each other before promptly stopping to acknowledge the queen’s arrival. 

“I came as fast as I could,” she said, eagerness evident in her eyes, “What’s this about bandits?” She took the main seat reserved for her, and sat down. 

“We’ve received reports of various clusters of banditry, and we believe that it could be organized.” Glimmer nodded at this, but when she felt someone’s hand settle itself over her shoulder, she almost jumped before she looked up to see Adora.

“A-Adora!” Glimmer was understandably surprised by the blonde, not expecting her sudden appearance. She could only smile at her apologetically for surprising her. In the back of Glimmer’s head, she thought of how the hand on her shoulder felt incredibly distracting. Despite the capelet being a barrier between her skin and her hand, she could feel how warm it was. Adora was always such a warm person, it made sense her physical body would reflect that too.

“Hi Glimmer.” she said, “I haven’t seen you in a while.” Glimmer’s heart gave a tiny squeeze. She hadn’t seen her in a while too, and it seemed like she hadn’t changed the past few weeks. Still the same ponytail, same jacket. She smiled at her, her presence warmed her heart.

“Well…! Um, official… queen business and all.” Glimmer said, half mumbling. She raised her eyebrows at her. “What uh, what are you doing here...?” she asked. 

“Well, I’m She-Ra,” she said this, like it wasn’t obvious. Glimmer’s face just morphed into annoyed exasperation. “And it’s _bandits_ , why wouldn’t I be here?” she laughed, took her hand away from Glimmer’s shoulder, then sat down in a seat nearby. She could feel her skin tingle in the absence of her warmth. 

“Right, well.” Glimmer said, turning to the general giving the report. “You were saying…?” She nodded back at the queen and continued her statement.

“Considering the towns are still recovering from the war, it’s no surprise there’ll be cases wherein people are forced to steal from others. We’re doing all we can to provide relief goods but…” she trailed off, and Glimmer understood perfectly. It takes awhile to help everyone. 

“Attacks on several towns and even some refugee camps in relatively same vicinity were reported. They’ve been too frequent to dismiss as isolated events happening at the same time, so there’s probably something bigger to it.” she finished. 

“If the attacks were in the same area it’s definitely an organized group,” Adora said, brows furrowing. She pointed at the map on top of the table where affected towns or camps were pinned. “I mean, if we could just figure out their base from just looking at what they’ve attacked, that’s a good start isn’t it?” Oh, this was definitely an opportunity to get out of the palace.

“I can do it!” she said, a tad louder than what was intended, so she cleared her throat and tried again. “I mean, I can go around and check it out pretty easily, I’m the perfect choice.” 

“But, Your Majesty—” the General started, before getting interrupted.

“No, no, see it’s perfect! We can send me in, I can take care of it, and nobody’ll have to worry about bandits!” she insisted. “It’s really simple too, I could just teleport around and I’d find it really fast.”

Everyone looked at each other unsure for a moment. One of them looked back to Glimmer.

“It’s still incredibly reckless Your Majesty, considering it might be an organized group.” she said. “There’s also been reports that weapons have been used by these bandits. Horde weapons.” Adora looked alarmed at this.

“Okay, that definitely doesn’t sound like a job you should do alone.” she said, concerned.

“Psh, I’ve always been able to take care of myself,” she continued to brush off. Part of her felt touched that Adora was concerned, another was annoyed. She was very much capable, thank you very much.

“Glimmer...” she continued, “I’m not gonna let you go on this alone.” What? Oh no, Glimmer felt like she knew where this was headed.

“N-No,” she slowly said. This was totally not part of the plan. “Adora, you don’t have to worry about that—!”

“I’m coming with you.” Adora said, like it was decided.

“Adora—”

“Glim, I’m serious.” she insisted back. Her eyes looked determined as ever and Glimmer could feel her resolve shake under its gaze. “I know you can take care of yourself, but let me help you. Please.”

Glimmer bit her lip. The reason why she wanted to go in the first place was so that she could avoid Adora further, so if she was _there_ on the trip itself…

“Your Majesty, if I may,” one of the advisors carefully said, “sending a small group is a perfect idea. A large group might intimidate them too much into hiding, but a smaller one would do the trick.” 

“F-fine…” Glimmer gave a huff of frustration. She knew they were right, but it still sucked. Adora just took her hand in consolation.

“It’ll just be like old times!” she said enthusiastically. Glimmer was not excited for these old times.

* * *

The rest of the discussion went on without a hitch. They basically just discussed the most possible point where the bandits would be, and what they should expect. Then some other boring discussion about trade routes or whatever, Glimmer’s mind just stopped paying attention at that point. She’s had enough of _boring_ , thank you very much.

She was happy she was going to be able to get out of the palace but then Adora was going to be there. Not that she didn’t want her company, it was just… she was apprehensive. Unsure on how she’ll be able to handle it. She’s definitely going to need Bow’s support on this one. He could be her gay charge, in charge of stopping her from being gay! Or stop her from doing anything stupid. Or a combination of both.

Hopefully Bow didn’t have anything planned for the next couple of days because his weekend was just scheduled for him. She was definitely going to send him some specially crafted friendship arrows or something to make up for it. She sat up, intending to go find her tablet to call him up. 

Just as she got past the doorway, Adora was there, leaning against the wall. Apparently she was waiting for her, so before Glimmer could have the chance to walk away from the room, she had grabbed her wrist.

“Glimmer, what’s up?” she asked, eyes shining in concern. 

“Hm…?” Maybe if she played dumb, it was going to be okay.

“Is… there something bothering you?” she continued hesitantly, like she was unsure.

“Me? Bothered?” she said too quickly, in a tone that implied that her question was ridiculous. “A-About what?” 

“I just… feel like it’s hard to get a hold of you nowadays.” she admitted. Her expression turned troubled. “I know you’re busy being queen but I’m always here for you if you need help.” The hand on Glimmer’s wrist moved to take her hand to her own, and the queen could feel the calloused texture of her palm. 

All Glimmer could think was Adora, _stoooop...!_ Why did she have to be so concerned? Couldn’t she just forget about her to make avoiding her easier? Why did she have to be so nice? Her heart felt like crying out. She wished she could just smush Adora’s adorable cheeks together and make her shut up.

She looked away, unable to look at Adora’s blue eyes. Admittedly, It made her feel guilty, having caused the concern in those eyes in the first place.

“I… I know, Adora.” she admitted. She looked back at the girl, “Just busy doing boring queen duties! Haha,” she said, trying to reassure her. It _was_ true, though she had taken to teleporting around the hallways way more than before in order to avoid her. 

But she didn’t need to know that.

Satisfied with that answer, Adora smiled. Suddenly Glimmer was pulled closer as she wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

“But seriously, I can’t wait to get out again.” she said in a light tone, with this cute snort she always had. “Feels like I haven’t done anything in ages!” Glimmer was inclined to agree, but her brain was still reeling over the fact that Adora was just suddenly close to her.

“Uh, yeah!” she said just to say something. “Can’t wait…!” She looked up at the taller girl, studying her sharp jaw, up to her cute nose, then finally her eyes. The closeness felt… familiar, and it calmed her beating heart.

This… wasn’t bad, right? To just let her have this? Adora had always instilled this feeling of safety whenever she was this close. Plus she was always the type to be close anyway, constantly wrapping an arm around her, putting a hand on her shoulder, and just generally… touching her.

She let herself relax in her arms. 

“I just hope Bow isn’t too busy…” she said in a light tone. Adora gave a chuckle. They both knew their friend had been busy over at Dryl’s kingdom, studying technological marvels with Entrapta. He was probably going to drop whatever he had on hand to help out.

“Ah, I’m sure Bow’ll make it. He loves us too much to not go.” she said, voicing Glimmer’s thoughts. She looked at her and smiled, eyebrows raised. “You think Entrapta drove him crazy yet?” Glimmer snorted.

“Not before the palace does!” she exclaimed, “That place was a freakin’ maze. I still remember dragging you around. You were like, a really dumb kid.” she giggled. Adora tried to make an offended expression, but it was ruined by her laughing.

“I couldn’t help it!” she said, then thought for a moment. “You dragging me around, I mean. I’m not a dumb kid.” she retracted, pouting. Glimmer laughed again, truly finding Adora amusing.

“Sure,” she said, in a totally unconvinced manner, “You think maybe your head got knocked too many times?” she teased, knowing full well how many times the blonde had blindly charged into the fray before promptly getting knocked back.

“I’m sure it’s fine.” she said, a ghost of a smirk on her face. To prove her point, she brought her arm out and flexed her bicep. “I’m still alive and kicking if this is anything to go by, Glimmer.”

The queen flushed at that response. _What!_ Who gave Adora the right to be a dork like that? She desperately hoped her flushed face wasn’t obvious to the blonde. She had to rip her eyes away from the arm because it was too mesmerizing to look at, then playfully punched her. Adora laughed.

“Glimmer—” she said, Glimmer’s hand went up to smush her face away from herself.

“WHAT!” she exclaimed, flustered.

“It’s not like I’m wrong—” she continued to laugh.

“OKAY, meathead!” she replied loudly, laughing despite herself. Despite not really talking that much the past few weeks, it seemed like they just fell right back into a pattern that felt natural. With the banter and back and forth, maybe the old times wouldn’t be so bad, she thought.

“Adora!” a new voice yelled out, and Glimmer’s heart dropped. It seemed reality was catching up to her. Said blonde turned her head to the direction of the voice then smiled at who she saw.

“Hey Catra,” she said, smiling. Said girl was walking towards them slowly.

“I’ve been looking for you” she started, her hand went to rub her elbow. “You can’t leave me alone in this palace, I literally don’t know anyone here other than you—” her gaze flickered briefly to Glimmer, as if just noticing her.

“Oh, hey Sparkles.” she said in this nonchalant manner that greatly annoyed Glimmer. Her eyes drifted to the spot beside Glimmer, then to Adora. Her tail started lashing in the air. Glimmer realized she must’ve been looking at Adora’s arm around her shoulders.

“What’re you doing here?” Glimmer asked, probably in a shorter tone than she should’ve. Catra’s eyes narrowed at her.

“Looking for Adora, duh.” she said. She turned to the blonde with an expression that read _Can you believe her?_ Adora only rolled her eyes in response.

“I told you, I had to go to the War Room for a discussion.” she said. “Can’t handle being alone even for just a bit?” she teased.

“I didn’t realize it was going to take that long!” Catra pouted, Adora only chuckled. 

“You’re too cute, really.” she said, and Catra could only splutter a reply that she _wasn’t_ cute. Glimmer had half a mind to verbally agree with her, but she stopped herself before she could. Her mood was dropping. Fast.

“A-Anyway,” Catra coughed, then crossed her arms “What was it about, anyway?”

“Bandits.” Glimmer said unhelpfully. Catra looked at her impatiently, tail occasionally lashing. 

“That’s it?” she said incredulously. _Well, not really, but I don’t really want to tell you so, suck it_ , was what Glimmer wanted to say, but Adora spoke before she could.

“Yeah, there’s been some bandits stealing from villages and camps.” she said, “Glimmer, Bow and I were going to go and investigate it.” Catra snorted at that, and Glimmer’s eyes just narrowed at her slightly.

“Oh, you guys are definitely going to need my help.” Catra said, a smirk evident on her face. Glimmer’s eye twitched.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Glimmer said. She could just about barely restrain herself from strangling Catra.

“I’m just saying, you guys aren’t exactly known for…” she thought for a moment, “Being non-destructive.” she settled for. 

“It’s not like I was going to throw a sparkle bomb and call it a day!” Glimmer said, irritated. She totally was gonna throw SOME sparkle bombs but!! she wasn’t about to admit that to her. A girl needs to destress from the palace! And besides, she wasn’t going to call it a day there! 

“I didn’t say you were.” Catra continued, “I’m just saying you guys could use me and Melog on your trip.” she shrugged.

“Catra. Adora, Bow and I have always been able to take care of ourselves before you came here,” she said, “I think we’ll be able to take care of ourselves _fine_ without you.” This earned her a glare from Catra.

“You don’t exactly have a great track record _Your Majesty,_ ” she said, in a tone that dripped with malice. “You’re basically just a pink sparkling nuke waiting to happen.” Okay, Glimmer was definitely going to throw some hands at this rate.

“Okay, okay time out.” Adora suddenly said, sensing that an intervention was probably the best. She had to take her arm off from Glimmer’s shoulder to push the two girls away from each other. She looked at Glimmer.

“Glimmer, Catra has a point.” she said carefully, and behind her Glimmer could see Catra’s face turn smug. She glared back at her. “Melog would be perfect for sneaking past any hideouts we find. We can deal with it easier with them onboard.” The queen took a moment to glare at Catra, then turned to Adora, frowning.

“But… I thought this was just going to be like the old times…?” she said, and she couldn’t help the small whine. “Best Friends Squad…?” Adora could only give a small smile.

“I promise it’ll just be like old times,” she said, moving closer to Catra to put an arm around her. Glimmer’s heart could only drop further when Adora continued. “Catra was always there anyway, but now she’ll be on our side!” 

Glimmer thought she forgot how that aching feeling felt when she was around Adora until it came back just now in full force. It felt hopeless, especially when she had just felt like there was a chance this trip wasn’t going to be terrible.

“Glim, please…?” she said in this soft tone and it was so so so unfair to Glimmer how she could just whip out that nickname and get anything from her. Her shoulders dropped, and she looked away.

“Fine.” she said tonelessly. It took her a moment to look back at them because it felt like her heart shriveled up. Adora smiled at her gratefully. 

“Thank you, Glimmer.” she said sincerely. The queen gave a nod in response.

“Yeah, whatever.” she mumbled back. Adora took her hand and gave it a squeeze.

“Really.” she continued, before letting go of her hand and turning to Catra. “Anyway, you and I have some preparing to do.” Catra only groaned, before getting dragged by Adora.

“Can’t we have something to eat first…? It’s like, dinner—” she said, her voice slowly fading away from the distance. Soon, the queen was left alone in the hallway.

Glimmer only sighed internally. Seeing Adora having an arm wrapped around another girl just drop kicked her back to reality, and she remembered how much having a crush sucked.

* * *

After that ordeal with Adora and Catra, Glimmer barely felt like eating. Instead, she gave a call to Bow. She tried to catch him up to everything, and then promptly asked him if it was okay for him to go on the mission together. Predictably, he agreed to come with, agreeing with Glimmer’s thoughts on being her gay charge. She found herself smiling again during their exchange, but there were still thoughts nagging in her mind. After ending the call with him, she decided she was just going back to her room and sleep. 

Her mood was too down to even will herself to teleport, so Glimmer took to walking around the hallways. She liked looking at the murals on the walls, studying the details, so she almost didn’t see the figure standing in front of a wall as she was so lost in her thoughts. She looked at it for a moment before she realized who it was.

Catra.

Glimmer didn’t expect to see Catra there. At first, she didn’t realize why the girl was so still, until her eyes traced over whatever she was looking at, then she freezed up too.

It was the mural of her mom. 

Glimmer looked back at Catra, and it looked like her eyes were wide, pupils barely slits, as she remembered what she’d done. A cold feeling filled the queen, rolling around her stomach until it was all she could feel. Her fingers twitched, and she tried to remember how to breathe properly.

“What… What are you doing here.” Glimmer found her voice acted before her mind caught up to the fact that she was talking. Catra’s head snapped to her direction, alarmed, and even her tail went up in surprise.

“S-Sparkles, I didn’t—” she started, but trailed off when the queen spoke again.

“I said,” she started again, a harsh tone coming to her voice, “What, are you doing here?” Catra winced at her tone, and her arm came up to rub her elbow. She looked down, ears and tail drooping. 

“I was just walking back to my room and…” she looks over to the mural again, guilt clearly etched into her expression. “...just saw this.” Her brows furrowed, and if Glimmer hadn’t felt so many things at that moment, she would’ve noticed her trembling a bit.

Seeing the shame and guilt on the girl in front of her made her blood boil. Like, _how dare she_ look at the mural of her mother. The guilt she felt probably didn’t even come near the amount of what she _should_ be feeling. Any thoughts she had before coming here vanished, and all Glimmer could think of was how much hurt she had felt when she lost her mom. How she could make Catra feel that much hurt too.

“It’s _your_ fault,” she said in the harshest tone she’d ever heard from herself, forcing Catra to look back at her. “Your fault that she’s gone and that she _isn’t here_.” Glimmer wanted to get up close to her, to push her, make her feel the pain she felt, but she held steady. Her voice cut through the silence like a knife.

“You don’t even deserve to look at her.” she seethed, her eyes glaring daggers at Catra. She just stood there, eyes wide, and unsure how to respond. In whatever way Catra was going to reply, Glimmer certainly didn’t expect that it would be in the same harsh tone.

“Hey Sparkles,” she spat out, “I’m not sure you noticed but, it’s been months and I’ve been on _your_ side since then!” Her fur stood on end, and the guilt that was on her expression morphed into anger. 

“Yeah? Fat load of good you did!” she scoffed back.

“ _What_ , like saving the world wasn’t enough? What more did you want, _your Majesty_.” the sarcasm dripped off her tone like honey.

“Surprise! It’s not! You haven’t _magically_ erased every bad thing you’ve done.” she stepped closer to Catra, intending to drive the point further. “It’s been almost a month, you know? And all I’ve been doing is _cleaning up your mess_ . What with you being the former leader of the Horde. Half the towns I’m helping were already in a rough place before Horde Prime showed up and whose fault do you think that is?!” she gestured wildly, before pointing in an accusatory manner to Catra. “Where’ve _you_ been?”

“Ohoho, so we’re bringing that up,” she snarled, “Besides, how would _you_ know?! I haven’t seen you at all _,_ so how the hell would _you_ know what _I’ve_ been doing? You don’t know me, you’ve _never_ even spoken to me ever since we got Horde Prime!” she screeched.

The silence was palpable when both girls quieted. “...You have no idea what it’s like in the Horde.” Catra’s voice broke at that, “You don’t know what I’ve been through. I didn’t have a choice.” Glimmer could only snort, earning her a look of contempt from the girl in front of her.

“You’ve always had the choice, you were just too blind to take it.” she said, “You were obsessed with revenge, and I bet you _never_ thought about how anyone felt unless it was you.” she accused, and Glimmer could tell it struck a chord from Catra.

“I’m sure _everything_ was clear to you, when you grew up in a pretty, sparkling palace with _servants_ for all your needs.” she bit out, “but I had to fight for _every_ scrap in my life, no one ever handed me things on a silver platter. Adora was the one good thing in my life, until she left me for _you_.” she finished, and something deep inside Glimmer snapped. 

She let out a strangled cry then grabbed Catra by the front, pulling her closer to her. She held up a glowing fist, ready to punch the lights out of her. Immediately, Catra’s hand gripped the hand holding her shirt, the sharp nails poking Glimmer’s skin, hard enough that she almost winced. Catra’s face was illuminated with a harsh purple light, with the crackle of energy and power coming from Glimmer’s fist only serving to further agitate her.

[](https://paperjamz.tumblr.com/post/621813032785494016/she-let-out-a-strangled-cry-then-grabbed-catra-by)

“Don’t bring Adora into this! Don’t you _dare_ .” Glimmer yelled, and she could feel that familiar feeling of her throat closing up, as well as tears prickling in her eyes. She almost let out _she chose you in the end_ , but Glimmer bit her tongue. She waited for anything to finally push her to hit her, any excuse to validate what she was about to do. 

Then, the grip on Glimmer’s hand slackened and fell away. An unreadable look came to Catra’s face, and it infuriated Glimmer that it almost looked like acceptance.

“Do it.” she growled. Glimmer sensed anger, but somehow it felt like it wasn’t directed at her anymore. “You’re completely right, I deserve it. You should do it.” 

Glimmer hated it, that defeated tone Catra had. She hated that small sliver of pity she held for the girl in front of her, like she didn’t deserve to have that acceptance. She hadn’t even been able to hurt her the way she was hurt, so why did Catra just give up like that? Her blood boiled, and she trembled with anger. Her expression darkened, and for a moment, even she wasn’t sure if she was about to punch her.

She let out a yell of rage, and Catra flinched. The magic she held in her hand bubbled bigger then finally exploded in a big flash of purple, sending ripple waves of magic pulsing in the air. Flashy, but ultimately harmless.

She let go of Catra, then pushed her away. The girl stumbled, but caught herself before she fell. She was breathing hard, and Glimmer saw pinpricks of sweat on her face. Though, Glimmer herself couldn’t stop from shaking and breathing hard. 

“Why…?” Catra asked after a moment. She looked shocked, like she couldn’t believe Glimmer didn’t push through with punching her but the queen paid no heed, and started walking past her. “Wait… Spa—” she caught herself, “...Glimmer. Please.” 

That made Glimmer pause. Her heart raced in her chest, and the tension was so thick, she could feel it weighing down on her shoulders. She turned, only slightly to her direction.

“...You’re only here because Adora’s here.” she said coldly, “and I’m doing this for her.” She turned completely to Catra and glowered at her. “You think you’ve changed, that somehow you’re different from who you were in the beginning, and you’ve even convinced Adora.” she gave a bitter laugh, then paused for a moment. “But I’m not convinced. I don’t know what she sees in you, but the moment she stops seeing it?” she let the threat hang in the air for a moment. 

“I’ll be there. You can bet on your life that _I’ll be there_ to make you regret it _._ ” Glimmer said through grit teeth, clenching her fist. “Then, you won’t have to worry about convincing anyone else that you’ve changed anymore.” she glared at Catra for a few moments, then turned back around to walk to her room.

Her intent was made clear, and it made no sense to stay any further in the area. 

Her footsteps echoed in the hallway, and left the cat alone to her thoughts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i absolutely didn't plan for half the things that happened here originally, it just happened. now i suspect this fic will be a tiny bit longer than what i planned! haha. things were SAID, FOLKS. i also made a spotify playlist for this fic entitled heartache by izeizebaby, give it a listen?
> 
> edit: ADDED A COMMISSION A GOT FROM MY FRIEND PTANALO!!! what an amazing artist. captured my visuals!!! isn't it so cool?
> 
> thank u for reading ; ---- ;


	4. lost in you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Glimmer deals with the anxiety of the confrontation of Catra with Bow on a call. Then, in the day after, she realizes reforging connections with long lost fathers demand so much more than a hug.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm just looking for some balance and some trust, I'm just looking for some mutual love  
> But all i get is unrequited, Why my world always on fire never chilly  
> I used to hate the serious i used to be so silly  
> But I'm not a kid no more no I'm not a kid, but i guess that's what we always said  
> Yeah i guess that's what we always said - lost in you by khai dreams

“I CAN’T believe you said that!”

Glimmer flushed. She was back in her room and on call with Bow, who was freaking out after she told him what happened with Catra.

“Bow, it isn’t a—!” she started, before promptly getting interrupted.

“Glimmer, I think you and I both know it’s a big deal.” he said, then he started nervously biting his nails. “And we’re all going to be on a mission together. _Oh,_ this can only go well…!” his voice cracked while he spoke. The queen couldn’t help but bite the inside of her cheeks. Bow was spreading his nervous energy to her too.

“But like…! She deserved it…!” Glimmer couldn’t help but protest. Catra _was_ responsible for the portal which dominoed into her losing her mom so… it’s completely justified! And it’s not like her animosity against Catra was unfounded either, she was still as jerky as ever! Her mind started going into overdrive, and burned with every stream of thought she had.

Whatever she said in her head didn’t change what Bow said or the fact that she doubted what she said now. Guilt started gnawing her insides.

When Bow saw her troubled expression, his face turned soft.

“Look, I’m not saying she didn’t deserve it,” he said before his voice went really low, like what he was about to say was illegal. “Catra’s kind of crazy, we both know that.” He looked around her room for a moment, through Glimmer’s camera. “Adora’s not there is she? Sorry Adora…!”

Glimmer hugged her arms, then glanced to the side. She gave a sigh.

“No Bow, she isn’t here.” she said. She was huddled under blankets and pillows on her bed that was suspended in air. She absentmindedly started rubbing the back of her hand with her other thumb. A thought struck her, and it filled her with anxiety. She looked back at Bow “...You think Catra told her...?” Bow bit his lip, unsure.

“I’m not sure…” he admitted, looking away. His expression turned troubled too, but after a moment he looked back at Glimmer. “But I think Adora would understand. She’s our best friend. That’s never changed.” Still, the queen was unsure.

“I don’t know, Bow. What if I said one too many things? I’ve already screwed up so many times…” she said, hugging herself tighter. Regret was now pouring in tenfold into her systems, and the idea of Adora not liking her anymore made her freeze up. Her stupid big mouth was the problem, if she could just shut up for the rest of her life—

“Glim, we both know that Adora would literally work herself ‘till exhaustion for you, she’s never going to hate you.” Bow interrupted her thoughts and Glimmer caught her breath. 

_Work herself ‘till exhaustion._

She has, multiple times. Over and over, Adora’s been there for her. Every step, every moment; in fact, it was hard to recall a moment where she couldn’t remember her comforting presence. Her expression turned queasy as her feelings continued its onslaught of emotions unto her.

“Bow…” she said weakly, “I don’t deserve her…” Her eyes turned watery and her bottom lip started quivering. She started sniffling as she tried to contain herself from crying. She’d been crying so much, it was really starting to grate on her nerves!

“Glimmer, no!” Bow said, his tone imitating a parent giving a strict talking to their child. “No talk of deserving, you _know_ you deserve her. I’m not going to hear this.” he chided her. Glimmer didn’t know how Bow could think that. She deserved her…? She hardly thought so. Not only had she been a terrible friend after becoming queen, she just _had_ to threaten her current _girlfriend_ if she did anything out of line. 

“I-I...” she stuttered out, unable to keep the shakiness out of her voice. “I just don’t want to lose her.” Her heart felt like it was being squeezed by a hand, trying to get all of its life force out of her.

“You’re not going to lose her.” Bow tried to reassure, but it did little to quell her anxieties. “I promise you, you aren’t going to lose Adora, okay? Things’ll turn out okay, Glimmer.” he said to her, and she buried herself further into her blankets.

“I hope so Bow… I really, really hope so.” she said. She briefly looked out to see the moon in the night sky, and it struck her how late she kept Bow up. “I’m really sorry I’m keeping you up late, Bow. If this is annoying at all—”

“Glimmer, please. I’d do this for you any day. It’s never going to be annoying.” he said. Agh, now she felt like she didn’t deserve Bow too! Why did all of her friends have to be literal angels on Etheria? She sniffled once more. “I’m literally going to hug you so hard the next time I see you. I’ll squeeze the depression out of you.” he said, and Glimmer snorted. She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, smiling a little bit at Bow’s joke. He saw this too, and gave a small smile of his own.

“Gonna have to hug pretty hard there.” she said, voice cracking, but Bow took this as a challenge.

“Guess I will!” he said cheerily, smiling wider. “You’ve been overdue for a best friend hug anyway.” Glimmer gave a small laugh at that. Then, Bow’s expression turned slightly more serious. “But yeah, I was serious. I’m always going to be there for you.” he promised. Glimmer was quiet for a moment, unable to find her voice.

“...Thanks Bow.” she said. She gave him an uneasy smile. “I literally don’t know how you deal with me but I am so _so so_ happy you do.” she let herself relax a tiny bit. “Everything just suddenly feels so overwhelming, I can’t tell you how grateful I am that you’re keeping my head straight.” Bow snorted at the word _straight_.

“Oh, yeah. In more ways than one.” he joked, wiggling his eyebrows. If he was here instead of in a digital space she would’ve poked him in the ribs. She gave him a look, to which he happily ignored. “How are things with… Adora?” he asked tentatively. Glimmer didn’t know how to answer that because she herself didn’t know.

“Um…” she bit her lip. “I’ve been… avoiding her…?”

“Glimmer, _what_!” he exclaimed, Glimmer winced. “You gotta set some boundaries if you don’t want to like, die from feelings! You’re not going to solve it by avoiding her.” Bow’s tone was cross.

“I know…!” she said, furrowing her brows. “I’m just afraid of driving her away.” she heaved a sigh then looked away once more. “I don’t wanna make things too complicated with her. She’s definitely going to think of me differently after that.”

“But this is for your sake too, y’know?” he said, and it was a moment before Glimmer looked back at him. He looked concerned.

“Yeah _yeah._ I can handle myself.” she said, trying to give a reassuring smile. “It’s gonna turn out fine.” He stared at her crossly for a moment, before breaking out in a small smile of his own.

“Yeah, I know.” he said, then his hand went to the back of his neck to rub it. “I just hope you know what you’re doing, Glimmer.”

“I always do.” she said fondly. “Thank you again, Bow. For being there.”

“No, yeah— Of course, Glim.” He paused for a moment, giving a yawn. “I’ll always be there for you.”

“I’ll always be there for you too.” she said, then yawned herself. “Okay, Bow, I think it’s time to get some sleep.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty late.” he said, he stretched his arms, then flopped down to what Glimmer thought was his bed. “I’ll see you soon Glim. Love you.” he said, but his tablet had a harder time picking up his voice so it sounded far away.

“See you, Bow. Love you too.” she said, smiling. She tapped the screen of her tablet, and it went blank, signalling the call was ended. She took in a big breath, then flopped down on the bed herself. That was… an unexpectedly long call with Bow, and it left her even more tired. Her thoughts were still racing though, and she suspected she wouldn’t be falling asleep anytime soon.

She turned in her bed, now laying down on her side. Her eyes glazed over the empty expanse of her too big bed. She’d never really thought about it, but… her bed was just too big to sleep alone.

She closed her eyes, but that didn’t slow down the unceasing stream of thoughts in her head. Past events still plagued her mind, and it seemed it would be a while until the queen would truly fall asleep.

-

The next day, Glimmer woke up at the respectable time of 2 pm. 

Okay, maybe it _wasn’t_ that respectable, but she did sleep late. Her stomach growled, reminding her that she was alive and actually needed to do things for her body, which sucked. Wasn’t it enough that she fed it every _other_ time? To be honest she couldn’t even remember if she ate anything last night but going by her stomach, she probably didn’t.

It took her awhile before she got the motivation to will herself to teleport directly to the dining room. Though teleporting had always felt as natural as breathing, she still felt sluggish. The moment she was able to reappear back in reality, she got hit with the strong whiff of food cooking that made her stomach actually tighten in pain. Her head too started to get a little bit dizzy.

The table was filled with plates of food, which wasn’t strange to see, but it kind of looked like it was less neater than usual. Like, whoever made it was haphazard about presentation unlike the usual palace cooks serving food. Plus, it was stuff she didn’t really recognize.

Glimmer stared dumbfounded as her dad entered the room precariously holding up four plates filled with food. His hands each held a plate while his arms held up the rest. When he saw her, he almost dropped them.

“Glimmer, you’re up!” He quickly set down the plates and tried to fix his clothes, which were stained with various bits of what Glimmer can only assume was sauce.

“D-Dad! Hi.” she said, a touch surprised. Did he make all of this? It made sense why it looked so unfamiliar to her. He smiled at her, and there was this brief awkward silence between them.

“Erm,” he coughed, breaking the silence. He gestured to the plates on the table. “I figured I’d cook a little somethin’ for you.” She glanced at the table, and briefly wondered if her dad forgot the definition of little. “Get your strength up for the journey, and all!” he said, before rubbing the back of his neck. “I didn’t actually know what you liked so I kind of just made everything I knew.” 

Oh. Well, that explained it. 

Her stomach growled, reminding her that she hadn’t had a proper meal since yesterday afternoon.

“Um, thanks.” she said, “Dad.” she added quickly. If she was being honest with herself, it felt both weird and not at the same time to call him dad. She didn’t mean for it to come out awkward either, but it did anyway. Micah didn’t seem to notice, so she took a seat on her chair. When she filled up her plate and took a bite, her father looked at her expectantly.

“It’s... good!” she tried to say encouragingly. She probably should've been more engaging but her head hurt and she just woke up. Micah still beamed hearing that, like that’s all he wanted to hear. He took his own seat and gazed at the plates he’d brought in.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you for the past… lifetime,” he said in a tone Glimmer couldn’t recognize. It made her pause eating for a moment. He started twiddling with his fingers when he looked back at her. “But I promise you Glimmer, I won’t be going anywhere now that I’m back.”

Hearing that should’ve been everything Glimmer ever wanted. She should’ve been happy, joyful that her father was _finally_ here. 

Instead, she barely felt her heart stir as she looked back at the old man who Glimmer only felt a semblance of a connection to. She didn’t really have the heart to tell him that there was a part of her that felt like it was too late to become a father now when she was already a Queen. It wasn’t any of his fault that the Horde had pulled their family apart, so she held her tongue.

What do you do with a dad you’ve thought your whole life was dead? Glimmer certainly didn’t know the answer.

“I know.” she finally said, going for a shaky smile. “I’m not going anywhere either.” and she meant it. She reached out and gave his hand a squeeze. Whatever the war did to their family, she wasn’t going to let it stop her reconnect, she resolved. He looked at her for a moment, before smiling himself, content with that reply.

After that, she continued eating.

Micah kept looking at her expectantly, so she tried to oblige him with a small comment or two with whatever she ate. Whatever Micah had thrown in together wasn’t bad and Glimmer found herself enjoying what she ate. He even filled in the silence when she was quiet, talking about the various dishes he’d made, which the queen was just nodding along to. She was kind of glad he was talking otherwise she’d have to endure the silence.

A part of her wondered how much easier it would be to connect to her dad if her mom was here. Her thoughts ran wild, imagining how that would be like.

“...—you’d like, I could teach you.” Micah said, and Glimmer only managed to process the last bit. She was so lost in her thoughts, she hadn’t been listening as much to her dad as she should have been. She looked at him for a moment, confused.

“Er,” her mind went blank. “Teach me what? Cooking?” she asked.

“Well, magic.” he clarified, “But I could teach you how to cook a couple of dishes too. I know you already _know_ magic.” he quickly retracted. “I have vague memories of a giant laser beam…?”

She did, blast him with an enormously powerful spell to… ah, subdue him.

From her look, Micah chuckled.

“I would never blame you for that, I’m just…” he thoughtfully tapped his chin. “...curious about what you know. It’s always been my plan to teach you how to be a sorceress, so… why not?” His tone was tentative, and he looked earnestly at her.

“O-of course!” she said. A twinge of excitement goes through her at the thought of learning from her dad. “But… aren’t you like, even a little bit… mad, though?” she asked, surprised.

“For what?” he asked, “Being incredibly skilled at _magic_ ? Why on Etheria would I be mad at that?” he asked incredulously. Glimmer could think the different ways her _mom_ would be mad at it. First that it was reckless, second it was dangerous, third it was a combination of both, etc. Nevertheless, Glimmer took in that response from her father, quietly eating another spoonful of food.

When she learned from Shadow Weaver, it admittedly felt… good. It made her feel incredibly powerful, but it was scary at the same time. She shouldn’t have trusted her… but she needed to learn magic, didn’t she? 

Now there was an opportunity to learn from someone who wasn’t some crazed manipulative megalomaniac! Of course she was going to take that chance. 

And of course, a part of her wanted to show off everything she learned too. To see his reaction, whether he’d be proud or not… She’d have to reorganize some dumb queen duties to make time but… 

Her skin prickled in anticipation.

It felt strange to think that this might be the father-daughter bonding time she’d been wishing for.

When she looked back at Micah, he looked relieved, like he was trying to downplay how much he’d been waiting to hear her answer. 

“This is perfect.” he said, reaching a hand up to ruffle her hair slightly. “Let’s find some time together after you come back from your mission, alright, kiddo?” Glimmer snorted at being called kiddo. The normalcy felt… nice. Totally weird, but… nice.

“Y’know I’m a queen right? Not some ‘kiddo’?” she said, a teasing tone entering her voice. Micah gave a hearty life.

“Just let me have this, baby girl.” he huffed, playing the same teasing tone. 

For a moment, Glimmer felt like Micah was always in her life. That they had fun banters like this all the time exchanged over the course of dinner, or that they had father-daughter-only inside jokes.

It was, again, a weird feeling, but... it felt nice.

She wanted more moments like those.

-

Soon enough, she found herself waiting in the throne room. She felt better after eating and talking to her dad, but still restless, while she was waiting for Adora and Catra. Definitely anxious too. She still wasn’t sure how she was going to face Adora if she was going to be mad at her. 

She tried to reassure herself that she was completely justified, and Catra’s just going to have to suck it up. She wasn’t going to apologize, she wasn’t going to feel bad, and she certainly wasn’t going to take it back! 

Her thoughts were cut short as two people entered the room, followed by Melog. Adora was pulling Catra by the scruff of her clothes.

“Catra—” Adora grumbled, “...stop making this… difficult!” she grunted, pulling Catra along. Catra only scowled, and Melog reflected the same emotions as evident by their flaming magical mane. 

“Okay, okay!” Catra said, swatting Adora’s hand off of her. “Stop babying me, Adora.” Catra huffed. 

“I wouldn’t _have_ to if you weren’t acting like a baby _!_ ” Adora insisted, “I swear, one moment you insist on coming, the next, you aren’t.” Glimmer sat up straighter at this. What was Adora talking about? Said blonde looked to Glimmer, her expression morphing to an apologetic one. She rubbed the back of her neck. “Sorry ‘bout that Glim. I don’t know what’s up with her.” she said. Catra’s scowl only furthered.

“It’s fine, Adora.” she replied, curious of whatever was happening between the couple. When she looked over to Catra, she happened to be looking back at her too. They shared a moment exchanging stares, but as fast as it started, Catra’s gaze flickered away. 

Did… she not tell Adora…?

She hadn’t considered that. Her mind had already created scenarios in her head where Adora just straight up tells her that she hated her now. She didn’t even think about Catra not telling Adora.

It was like a weight had been lifted from her chest and she could suddenly breathe, though admittedly there was still some pressure left. At least she didn’t need to worry about that anymore. She put those thoughts in the back of her head. If Catra wasn’t going to bring it up, Glimmer would definitely not.

“I guess, it’s just Bow left.” Glimmer said, standing up from the throne and walking down to the two. “We’ll just be dropping by Dryl really quickly to pick him up, and then we’ll teleport again straight to Plumeria. Then we can start making our way there.” The plan was incredibly simple, just pop in and investigate. There really wasn’t anything that could go wrong with that. Adora just nodded, and Catra refused to look at her.

Well, she didn’t need her attention to teleport anyway. She placed a hand against both of their backs while Melog stayed in the center, in contact with the queen, so it was child’s play to teleport all four of them to the outskirts of Dryl. 

The world exploded in pink and sparkles as she took the group to their destination, and when the glitter cleared away, the dusty path leading to the towering, labyrinth of a palace, greeted them. Bow was standing nearby, wearing his usual outfit with his signature bow and quiver slung over his shoulder. His face lit up when he saw them reappear.

“Guys!” he greeted, running over to Glimmer and squashing her in a big hug. Glimmer gave a grunt as all the air in her lungs was squeezed out by Bow.

“B-Bow, I can’t, breathe.” Glimmer wheezed out, tapping his shoulder and her friend loosened his bear grip on her. He smiled apologetically at her.

“You knew it was going to be a bear hug, Glimmer.” he said, smiling crookedly. Glimmer gave him a small smile. He turned to Adora, giving her a hug as well, which she happily returned. He turned to Catra presumably to give a hug too, but when he saw her sullen expression, backed off. 

“Alright! We’re settled.” she clapped her hands. She took Bow’s and Adora’s hand, and the blonde slung her arm over Catra, who had a hand resting over Melog’s mane.

With a bright flash, they teleported to Plumeria.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is the shortest one yet! :O. sorry if it seemed a little bit slow, i took a writing break in between and kinda lost my flow? i hope it wasn't too obvious o-o. 
> 
> Special thank you to my friend for helping me write this! she gives a lot of helpful comments and suggests so many cool things like....... srsly, special thank u to her. she gave a lot of direction here ;---;;.


	5. Somebody

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Passing through Plumeria was supposed to be quick, but of course, it's impossible to be quick when Bow's there to pull the group to a Plumerian party, featuring Scorpia.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And you were walkin' beside  
> Some other person's shadow  
> And it was more than I could take - Somebody by Jukebox the Ghost

Plumeria was always a pleasant place to visit. The flowery fragrance and the friendly atmosphere of the kingdom felt so welcoming, especially after the giant wave of magic encompassing the land. It felt even more alive than before, and as Glimmer reappeared back to reality, cheers and jovial tunes were already heard. There was a moment where the group did nothing but take in the atmosphere of the area.

Bow breathed in air through his nose, closed his eyes, then exhaled the air through his mouth. When he opened his eyes again, he broke out into a grin.

“I can’t even remember the last time we were here.” he said, turning to Glimmer. Glimmer couldn’t either, admittedly. She just remembered the first time the trio came here together. It was pretty silly remembering She Ra cockily carrying a whole wagon by herself. Adora can be such a show-off sometimes. ...Not that she minded.

“C’mon.” she said, shaking her thoughts away. “We’ve got a lot of ground to cover, we should get moving.” she moved ahead, but Bow interrupted her with his voice.

“Glimmer, we  _ have _ to say hi to Perfuma and Scorpia.” he said, pouting. “It’s only going to take a few moments—” he ran ahead of Glimmer, and the queen only rolled her eyes. It definitely wasn’t going to take ‘a few moments’, but Bow already went ahead, with Adora following, pulling Catra along. Glimmer sighed, but followed along too.

“It’ll be nice to see what they’re up to.” Adora remarked. When she turned to look at Glimmer, she looked thoughtful. “She’s been helping out with rebuilding right?” 

“Oh, yeah.” Glimmer replied. She hadn’t actually been seeing Perfuma personally, but she knew that she and Scorpia were really helpful handling the rebuilding process. There never seemed to be a shortage of food too in the center of Plumeria either, so those under their care didn’t starve. Her eyes drifted to study the various locals dancing along to the music or children playing with each other. 

Adora placed a hand over her shoulder, causing Glimmer to look at her for a moment.

“I haven’t said this yet, but you’re doing a really good job as Queen, Glim.” she said, smiling. Glimmer felt her face go warm. She quickly looked to the ground, unable to look at Adora’s blue eyes without blushing further.

“W-where did that come from?” she said, a tone short of demanding. 

“I mean, you’ve been handling this sort of stuff for weeks haven’t you?” Adora thought out loud. 

“It’s mostly just paperwork.” she admitted. It was boring, boring paperwork, reestablishing trade routes, directing her troops in distributing aid, etc etc. Adora snorted at that.

“Kinda hard to imagine you as a pencil pusher.” she raised her eyebrows at that. Glimmer groaned.

“I know! I’ve been dying to get out.” Adora looked like she was about to reply, but she stopped short. She looked to Catra, and Glimmer had to crane her neck to see why. Catra’s ears were drooped, and her brows were furrowed to give her a troubled look. Catra had taken Adora’s hand into her own. 

“What’s wrong?” the blonde asked, confused. 

“I—…” she tried, but when she saw Glimmer looking, she shot her a look that said  _ hey, mind your business _ . Glimmer felt a twinge of annoyance, but otherwise leaned back. Catra looked back to Adora. “I’ll tell you later. I’m just nervous.” For a moment, Glimmer thought she was going to tell her about last night, but then it occurred to her that if she was, she would’ve said something sooner.

“It’ll be okay Catra,” Adora said, worriedly. She rubbed a thumb over her hand, and Catra seemed to relax a tiny bit. “It’s just Perfuma and Scorpia, you’ve got nothing to worry about.” she said. Catra bit her lip.

“That’s just it.” she said, “Let’s just make it quick here, okay?” she asked. Her tail lashed as they walked. Adora looked disappointed, but didn’t say anything else. They continued walking until they reached the center, which was sporting an entirely new addition. 

“Uh. Wow.” Glimmer could only say, looking up at the tall, floral statue of Scorpia and Perfuma. Perfuma, adorned in a lovely sundress holding a bouquet of flowers, was looking at Scorpia wearing an equally matching dress of her own, with her own set of flowers. Behind them, there was a giant outline of the heart, big enough to encapsulate the couple.

“Pretty impressive huh?” someone said beside them, and all three heads turned to see Scorpia standing beside Glimmer. The queen gave a start seeing the big woman suddenly beside her. For someone so big, she could be incredibly silent. 

Scorpia didn’t even notice, still beaming at the giant likeness of her. She turned to the group. “Perfuma made it for me.” she paused. “Well, us, really. She’s so sweet, isn’t she?” she said happily. 

“I mean, we got that.” Catra said, crossing her arms “Who else would make something so sickeningly flowery?” Scorpia’s eyes flickered to her for a moment, before she bounded over and wrapped her in a big hug.

“Wildcat! It’s been too long.” She said, ignoring Catra’s surprised yelp and the following hand on her cheek, trying to push her off. “You never write! I don’t know what’s going on with you anymore.”

“Grah!” Catra growled. “Scorpia, Personal! Space! Come on, we talked about this.” she grumbled, her frustrated tone evident. Adora only gave a small chuckle while Glimmer looked unamused. The big, buff lady finally placed Catra back down to her feet, and placed her pincers over her hips.

“You guys are in for a treat! I didn’t know you were coming, but that’s fine. We can make it a whole party!” she exclaimed. 

“We aren’t staying here long, Scorpia.” Glimmer said, but that kind of fell on deaf ears. 

“Ah-ah.” Scorpia said, waving her pincer. She grabbed Glimmer and Catra by their arms, then pulled them along. “Let’s go say hi to Perfuma! You know, my girlfriend? I love her so much.” she cooed.  _ Oh great _ Glimmer thought  _ another couple to remind me I’m single _ .

Perfuma was waiting by her usual spot, talking animatedly with Bow. When she noticed Scorpia walking by, she waved to them.

“Oh! Scorpia, you’ve bought more friends!” she clapped her hands together. “You’ve come just in time for the show.” She gestured to the floor, and the ground split apart for five flowers sprouting, big enough for each of them to sit on it. “I was just telling Bow about the production it took. You would  _ not _ believe the demand! You guys should sit and watch!” 

“Demand for what?” Adora asked, sitting down on the flower. Catra followed suit, with Melog sitting down beside her, curling their tail around her form.

“This amazing show they organized,” Bow said, taking hold of Glimmer’s hand and pulling her along to sit down on the flowers themselves. Glimmer let herself be dragged, but her face remained unamused. “Perfuma was just— Glimmer, don’t look at me like that. Perfuma was just telling me about it.”

“Oh, come on Bow, you said we weren’t going to stay here long.” Glimmer said, a little bit peeved. Bow hit her with puppy eyes, and she tried to stay strong. She lasted for like, a second before sighing and crossing her arms. “Fine! What are we watching anyway?” she grumbled.

“Me!” Scorpia said, puffing out her chest. “I’m going to be performing my new hit single.” she said proudly. 

“Wait, wait,” Catra suddenly spoke up, scoffing. “We’re still here because of you? But you’re terrible.” she blurted out. Adora elbowed her in the ribs. “Ow!” she protested.

“Catra…! Be nice.” she scolded, but Scorpia’s proud pose had already deflated somewhat. Perfuma saw this, and rushed to her girlfriend’s side to put her hands over her arms. She turned to Catra with a cross expression.

“Catra! We don’t use that kind of language here. We believe in positive reinforcement.” she said, before turning to Scorpia. “And I happen to think that your singing is beautiful, Rosebud.” she smiled at her. With the height difference, Perfuma had to look up and Scorpia had to lean down a bit. The flower princess leaned up to quickly kiss her cheek, and with a flick of her wrist, a rose was summoned to rest above Scorpia’s ear. Her face flushed in response.

“Aw, shucks.” she said bashfully, looking away. A pincer went up to rub the back of her neck. “You’re too nice.” Perfuma gave a light laugh.

“I’m not, but go on Scorpia! Everyone’s waiting for you.” she gestured to the Plumerians gathering nearby. Scorpia looked at them for a moment, before turning back to her.

“Thank you, Perfuma.” she said sincerely. She leaned down and gave a small chaste kiss to her lips before smiling. “Oh, I’m so excited! I’ll make you proud!” she said, before bounding off, nearby the statue. 

There was a moment where Perfuma did nothing but look at her girlfriend’s cheerful self, being silly in front of the crowd. She turned around, remembering she had guests over. With another flick of her wrist, four bowls filled with salad literally grew in front of them.

“Here, you guys should eat! Vegetables are good for you.” she said, before walking back to her original spot, and sitting down. Glimmer looked at the bowl, thinking back to the meals her dad had prepared for her. She definitely wasn’t hungry just yet.

She sighed wistfully, and absentmindedly started playing with the leaves. Watching Perfuma and Scorpia act like that was sweet. She wondered in the back of her head if  _ she _ was ever going to get something like that.

At some point, she felt someone staring at her, so she turned to see Bow giving her a look.

“What?” she asked, confused.

“Bet you wish you had a big buff girlfriend that kissed you like that.” he said, in a smug smirk.

“WHAT?” she said in disbelief, eyes bulging. Her face flushed. 

“I said, I bet you wish you had a big buff—” Bow was interrupted by Glimmer shoving a whole leaf in his mouth to shut him up.

“Don’t repeat it!!” she demanded, a tad too loud. He started laughing, while chewing whatever Glimmer had shoved in his mouth. She punched him not too lightly on the shoulder. 

“What’re you guys laughing about?” Adora asked, and Glimmer stiffened. She turned to her, feeling like she was caught in the field of vision of a giant monster

“N-nothing, Adora—”

“Oh just that Glimmer wishes she—” Glimmer shoved another piece of lettuce in his mouth. Adora stared at them for a moment, and the queen could feel a pinprick of sweat falling down her skin.

“Can I have your bowl of salad?” she asked, completely bewildering Glimmer. She leaned a bit to see Adora’s bowl already empty.

“Sure.” she said flatly. “I’m not hungry.” she pushed the bowl to her direction, and Adora dug in.

“I can’t believe you like this, Adora.” Catra said, pushing her own bowl away from her. “It tastes worse than the ration bars back in the Horde.” she stuck her tongue out in disgust. Adora only shrugged. 

“It’s tangy.” she said simply. Perfuma clapped her hands, bringing everyone’s attention to her.

“Alright everyone, it’s about to start!” she said. She snapped her fingers, and a flowery platform grew in the center, surrounding Scorpia in a gorgeous arrangement. 

She started singing and moving gracefully, flitting around the area. Bow watched attentively, cheering enthusiastically at Scorpia, while Adora barely looked up from eating. Catra had her eyes trained on her former Horde ally, looking lost in thought. The crowd was entranced, cheering her on, which further encouraged the princess.

Watching Scorpia sing and dance, Glimmer had to admit it was impressive. She had a nice strong voice, and it was pleasant to listen to. Plus, Scorpia knew how to engage the crowd, moving confidently in the center, grabbing everyone’s attention. It kind of struck her how different Scorpia was with Perfuma. When Glimmer first met her, it kind of seemed she was a bit unsure of herself.

Watching her enjoy herself made her smile. It really seemed like Perfuma was good for Scorpia, and it seemed Scorpia was making the flower princess herself happy too.

She glanced to the side to look at Adora, and wondered if the same was true for her and Catra. 

Beside her, Catra looked agitated, watching Scorpia perform. Her nails scraped the ground as she nervously, almost imperceptibly, fidgeted.

-

The show ended, with much pizazz from everyone. Cheers were heard from the crowd, especially one enthusiastic whoop from Bow. Glimmer gave her own small cheer, finding herself genuinely amused by Scorpia. She clapped along with the crowd, even laughing. It wasn’t  _ too _ bad, staying for a little while. At least she laughed the most she had in the past week.

It was when people started dancing did Glimmer’s social battery die. Bow almost pulled her along to a dance, but when she shook her head, he understood. He took her hand and squeezed it.

“You good?” he asked. Typical of Bow to ask about her before he went off. She wondered if she was, for a moment.

“Yeah.” she settled for. She pushed him lightly. “Go have fun, dork.” she said. Bow smiled at her. He ran off to join the crowd. Perfuma was there too, laughing along with Scorpia. 

She was watching the crowd from the distance, sitting on her flower, when she realized that she was the only one there left. Adora and Catra had slipped away at some point. Melog too, but they always stuck with Catra anyway, so that didn’t surprise her.

She hugged her knees. Being alone was what she had wanted in the beginning, so this was fine. She wondered briefly where she’d be right now if she had gone alone. Definitely not here, watching people dance and play instruments. It was still bright out too, but it was growing closer and closer to dusk. That thought made her anxious, she didn’t want to stay too long here and waste time.

She let out a breath she’d been holding, letting her shoulders relax. Being alone in a loud place like this was making her restless. She needed to get up and do something. She stood up, then slipped away from the festivities. It was simple enough to concentrate and disappear in a flash of glitter and sparkles.

She reappeared just outside the range of the party. The dirt trodden path seemed so much bigger when there wasn’t anyone there, but at least it was quiet. She walked wordlessly, kicking some pebbles as she did. 

“This party is lame.” she heard someone say, and Glimmer turned her head, trying to find the source of the voice. “Come on, Adora. Why don’t we just get out of here?” 

Oh. From that alone, Glimmer could tell it was Catra. She couldn’t help but feel annoyed. What the heck was her problem? Not everything had to be about her! It was bad enough she had insulted Scorpia right before her performance. Did she seriously have to be a jerk all the time?

She walked over to one of the huts, and peeked behind it. There they were, standing nearby a tree. Adora was leaning against the trunk, her arms crossed and eyebrows raised in an amused manner at Catra. A piñata hung underneath the branches, swaying between them.

“Oh yeah? And you’re the master of parties?” Adora snorted. 

“You’d be surprised what kind of parties I held, back in the Crimson Waste.” she replied back, in a kind of self-satisfied way. Adora stuck her tongue out in disgust.

“Because  _ sand _ is the first thing that comes to mind when I think of ‘fun’.” she said, and Catra laughed. “C’mon. You gotta at least admit these things are fun.” She pointed at the piñata between them. 

“Hmm…” she said, pausing for a moment as if in thought. “Nah, still lame. I don’t know why you’d think it isn’t.” she said. Adora snorted.

“You are  _ such _ a liar.” she said. Catra stuck her tongue out at her. There was nothing said for a few moments. Catra leaned her head against the tree, staring up at the leaves. The wind blew, swaying the piñata and rustling both of their hairs and the foliage of the tree.

Glimmer felt like a creep, watching them there, so she stopped peeking behind the hut. Catra was just going to annoy her, plus they might do something gross like make out or something. Yuck.

She was about to turn and walk the other direction when Catra spoke up again.

“Hey, Adora.” she said. “What do you think of Sparkles?”

Glimmer’s breath hitched. She stayed frozen, against the wall of the hut she was hiding behind.

“Glimmer? What about her?” Adora asked, confused. The queen tried to will herself to move, her heart starting to beat louder in her chest.

“Just answer the question, dork.” Catra said. Slowly, Glimmer had peeked behind the wall again, just in time to see Catra roll her eyes. She shouldn’t stay, but there wasn’t any way she wasn’t going to eavesdrop if they were talking about her. 

“Well.” Adora said, looking up in thought. “She’s brave, powerful.” she smiled like she was remembering something fondly, and it didn’t help Glimmer’s current problem with breathing. “She can be really, really stubborn.” she laughed at that. “Once her mind is made up, there’s no changing it.” 

“She’s a goody two shoes, like you.” Catra pointed out, and Glimmer wondered if everything that came out of her mouth had to sound like an insult. 

“Catra, she isn’t so bad. Just give her a chance.” Adora said, pursing her lips. “She reminds me of you, sometimes, actually.” Glimmer almost gagged. Evidently, so did Catra.

“We’re nothing alike.” Catra said, her tone turning defensive. Glimmer couldn’t help but agree.

“She’d probably say the same thing.” Adora pointed out. Then, her tone turned soft, and Glimmer had to strain her ears to hear her. “She’s one of the strongest people I know. There’s nothing she wouldn’t do for her friends.”

Adora’s words washed over her, making her short of breath. The feeling was pleasant and it made her feel warm, especially with that fond tone Adora had used.

It made her feel apprehensive, like she should prepare for something terrible next.

“Wow,” Catra said in a surprised tone, like she hadn’t quite expected those words from Adora. “Do I have to worry about anything?” she asked in a light and joking tone, but Glimmer could see her tail lash, almost like she was nervous.

“Worry about what?” Adora sounded genuinely confused. “She’s my best friend, it’s not like she’s going to hurt you.” Catra snorted. Glimmer felt her heart gripped by a fist once more, hearing Adora say that, but she was far too deep to stop now. She pressed on, frozen on the spot as she watched them.

“It’s nothing.” Catra finally said. 

“Is this about earlier?” she pressed, “The one you said you were going to tell me later about?” Catra bit her lip.

“No, that’s just, um.” she stumbled on her words, having a hard time verbalizing what she was thinking. “...Do you ever think of Shadow Weaver?”

“That was random,” she said, in a light tone at first, but it was evident from Catra’s face that it was serious. Adora straightened up, then looked to the ground. “...Yeah,” she admitted. “Sometimes I do.”

A beat of silence followed where neither girls said anything.

“What’s this about…?” Adora asked. “What’re you thinking of?”

“I can’t help it… She’s…” Catra gave a shaky sigh. “She’s in my head.” She gripped her arm, a pained expression on her face. “I keep seeing her in my dreams.” Adora reached over and took her hand, a concerned expression on her face.

“She isn’t here anymore, Catra.” she said, her tone reassuring. “It’ll be okay, one day.“

“But it’s not!” Catra said in a sharp, harsh tone, with an expression to match her face. Adora flinched and drew her hand back from her. The cat’s eyes widened.

“S...Sorry.” Catra said, looking away. She took in a shaky breath. “Don’t you… dream about her too…?” she asked. There was a moment of hesitation where Adora didn’t say anything.

“Not… Not as much.” she said, and Glimmer could tell there was something deeper to that answer. Catra studied her for a moment, probably thinking the same thing as Glimmer. 

“I know you still get nightmares.” Catra pressed.

Adora didn’t reply, but Glimmer saw she bit her lip.

At that point, Glimmer realized she’d been there for too long. She was far too invested into listening to her friend, delving into the territory of  _ creepy, _ that she took a step back. This wasn’t right. Whatever they were talking about now was incredibly personal and even if her feelings on Catra were shaky, she could not, and would not do anything wrong to Adora.

She… She deserved the world. Not whatever she was doing.

She hated Catra at that moment, and felt that disgusting bile of jealousy rise up in her, but that was unfair. Adora had Catra, even  _ wanted _ Catra, and she wasn’t going to stand in the way of what she wanted. She wasn’t like that.

Glimmer stumbled away, running her fingers through her hair, gripping the strands. She didn’t feel any better from earlier, and in fact, her stomach felt like it was being thrown into a blender.

She felt sick.

In a flash, she teleported away from the couple.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bow and glimmer are super easy for me to write because i just imagine my best friend. and catra and glimmer are also super easy for me to write because i love both those characters. ADORA.... is not as easy. HAHA
> 
> BTW, I commissioned my friend to draw a scene in chapter 3, and I’ve included the picture in the chapter already if you’d like to see 👀. see it [here](https://paperjamz.tumblr.com/post/621813032785494016/she-let-out-a-strangled-cry-then-grabbed-catra-by)!


	6. So Close

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Glimmer tries to understand what she's feeling, and Adora tries to cheer her up by treating her to a dance. A confrontation with Catra leads to a sobering reality check for the queen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So close, so close  
> And still so far... - So Close by Jon McLaughlin for the Enchanted Movie Soundtrack
> 
> (I made an animatic for this chapter, link at the end!!)

When Glimmer opened her eyes, there was a moment where she didn’t know where she was. The music was loud, with gleeful cheering in the background to accompany it. It felt so unfamiliar to her that it felt jarring to reappear back to reality.

Right. The Plumerian party. 

She glanced up at the sky, just realizing how late it was getting. The kingdom almost looked orange, as the sun set over the horizon.

She looked back down and stared at the Plumerians. They didn’t look too different from when she left, and everything felt the same. A part of her felt resentful. It was unfair that everyone else in the world wasn’t feeling the same kind of dread she was feeling, why did  _ she _ have to deal with it on her own? It almost felt like the world was mocking her.

She sat back down on her forgotten flower, staring at the ground. She ran her fingers through her hair, trying to figure out what she was feeling. Stress was one thing. Definitely guilt. Anxiety? Better question to ask was ‘when was she  _ not _ experiencing anxiety’? Jealousy was a whole other bucket she didn’t even want to touch.

She heaved a sigh.

She couldn’t see what Adora saw in Catra. Couldn’t fathom it, even. She could definitely think of less than kind words to describe her. And, anyway, couldn’t Adora have chosen anyone  _ else? _ She kinda felt like she was going crazy because  _ everyone _ was pretending everything was fine and that Catra wasn’t the person they were fighting against just a year ago. 

She understood it at first, after all even she was under the impression that everyone was just putting their emotions somewhere else because there was a  _ war _ to be fought. There were more pressing things happening, and barely enough time to hash things out. Glimmer herself hadn’t talked about her mother to Catra in Horde Prime’s ship nor did Catra talk about any of her issues to Glimmer. 

She remembered what it was like to be on that ship. She was isolated and alone. Scared, terrified, and far from everything she’d fought so hard to protect. She went against her best friends and tried to control something she couldn’t, and almost caused the downfall of her planet.

And Catra was there. The person who’d terrorized countless villages with the Horde army  _ she _ commanded, destroyed Salineas through  _ her _ conquests and  _ haunted _ Adora through terrible mind games and physical trauma. She’d seen the way the two had fought in the battlefield. There was no way it didn’t leave scars. No way those scars wouldn’t come back to haunt Adora.

But then again, was she any better?  _ She _ was the one who listened to Shadow Weaver and used dark magic,  _ she _ was the one who used Adora as bait, and  _ she _ was the one that almost caused the world to end because she thought she could control the power of the heart of Etheria.

She was the one who blamed Adora for her mother’s death, even though Adora had done everything she could have done to stop it.

She contemplated for a moment if she hated Catra. 

It was all a jumble of emotions. Glimmer hated what she’d done, hated how she’d been acting, how  _ everyone’s  _ been acting, but she didn’t really know if she  _ hated _ her. It would… feel too hypocritical of her. And besides, it’d be stupid of her to think that there wasn’t a portion of jealousy involved too.

...Was it really so bad to want Adora…?

Her thoughts distracted her so much, she hadn’t noticed that someone had settled right beside her. Suddenly there was a weight on her shoulder as someone leaned against it. Glimmer looked to the side, startled to see the very blonde herself, as if her thoughts had summoned her.

“Hey Glim,” she said, “Have you been here the entire time?” she asked, not quite believing it, and the queen couldn’t really reply, too surprised to open her mouth. 

“I thought you were with Catra?” she said after a moment, ignoring Adora’s question. 

“Oh, how’d you know?” she asked, surprised.

“Er.” Glimmer’s mind blanked. “When aren’t you with Catra?” she said, avoiding the question. She felt super guilty eavesdropping on her friend, and didn’t really want to admit it to her. Adora studied her for a moment.

“...Fair enough.” she settled for, and Glimmer felt relief sweep through her. “I just came back from talking to her. I wanted to see what was up with you.” Adora slung an arm around her shoulder, and once more Glimmer was in Adora’s arms. She felt herself flush at the closeness. 

_ Did she really have to be so touchy?  _ she thought, not really meaning the annoyed tone.

“What do you mean?” she asked, trying to keep her voice steady. She tried not to notice how Adora’s body felt so warm in the brisk gloom of the setting sun.

“You just look like you’ve got a lot on your mind.” she shifted for a moment with her free hand. When she brought her hand to Glimmer’s view, a small flower was in her grasp. “A flower for your thoughts?” Glimmer stared at the flower for a moment, before looking back at Adora.

“Psh…” she snorted, raising an eyebrow at Adora who only smiled at her. Her heart still did flips at the gesture. “Dork.” Adora had a dumb look on her face that Glimmer could only describe as pleased.

“But did it work?” she asked, drawing the flower back slightly.

“I don’t know, did it?” she challenged.

“If you don’t tell me, I’m just going to start guessing.” she warned. Glimmer sighed.

“Nooo, Adora, you don’t have to—.” she tried, but the blonde insisted on continuing.

“Is it because you didn’t eat? You’re hungry, aren’t you.” she said like she solved the puzzle, and Glimmer only rolled her eyes. 

“Why is that your first conclusion?” she asked.

“Is it because we still haven’t left Plumeria yet?” she asked, unmoved by Glimmer’s tone. “I know we were only supposed to be here really quickly but…” she trailed off.

“What? Oh, no.” then she thought better of it, “Well, maybe a little bit, but there’s like, no way I could say no to Bow when he makes that face.”

“Hah, true.” she snorted. “Then are you thinking of someone?” she asked, and Glimmer noticeably stiffened. “Oh did I actually get it?” she sounded surprised.

“Uh.” Okay that was unfair, Glimmer wasn’t prepared for that. She tried to think of a viable answer to convince Adora that totally wasn’t it. “Of course it isn’t, Adora! That’s dumb, who would I even be thinking of?” she asked, her voice a tad bit higher than usual. 

“I totally got it. Wow.” she grinned to herself. “It’s written all over your face.” Glimmer opened her mouth to say something, with a hand coming up to lecture her but she couldn’t think of anything to say so she ended up closing her mouth again. She buried her face under her hands, and her face was hot enough to warm her chilly palms.

“Hmph... No it’s not.” she denied stubbornly, “I don’t know what you’re talking about” she mumbled into her hands, but it came out muffled. Adora gave a short laugh.

“You’ve fully convinced me.” she said in a tone that said the opposite. When Glimmer peaked out of her fingers, Adora only had that dumb look again.

“You’re such a dork,” she almost cracked a smile. “Stop it.”

“Oh come on, you love it.” she said, and Glimmer couldn’t deny that. “But… yeah. Who’re you thinking of?”

“Why’re you so interested?” she shot back, avoiding the question.

“Are you scared I’ll figure it out?” Adora asked, and Glimmer could feel a sweat drop. 

“Figure what out?” she said, playing dumb.

“Oh come on, Glim,” she said, “I feel like you’re hiding something.”

“Erm…” A little trickle of panic went through Glimmer.

“I’ve never seen you look that focused before,” she said looking away from her and putting her free hand up to her chin in a thinking gesture “...so it’s gotta be someone important.”

“You really don’t have to guess, Adora...” she insisted. Jeez, what was happening??

“There’s only one person for this…” 

“Seriously, Adora. Drop it.” her tone dropped to a more serious one, but Adora continued.

“And it’s gotta be—”

“Adora!” she said, louder.

“—Bow!”

What?

Glimmer’s mind reeled. What did she just say? Did… did Adora really just say that? She looked at Adora with wide eyes, not believing the name that just came out of her mouth. 

“What?” Adora asked.

Then Glimmer laughed, a big pure laugh, like she couldn’t believe this was really happening. It just seemed so  _ absurd,  _ so  _ incredulous _ , that her crush had tried to guess who she was thinking of and thought it was  _ Bow _ . She laughed so hard, her eyes had closed and her cheeks hurt from smiling. 

“You,” she said, in between laughs, “are so wrong.” but Adora didn’t seem to care, and only brushed off that statement.

“Doesn’t matter,” Adora said, and Glimmer had to stop laughing to look at her. Small giggles still escaped her throat. “You finally gave a laugh.” she smiled at her, and the butterflies returned full force. Glimmer couldn’t help but just stare at Adora, an indescribable feeling just bubbling in her chest.

“You’re just saying that because you didn’t guess it correctly.” she said, praying that her tone came out as teasing instead of awestruck.

“Mhm.” she said, sounding like she didn’t hear what Glimmer just said and had just agreed to end it there. “Sure I didn’t.” she said with a wink. Glimmer just flushed and looked away.

They were silent for a moment, but it felt comfortable. The music that Scorpia was offering in the chill of dusk was playing in the distance, and there were choruses of locals singing along. 

Glimmer idly wondered what was on Adora’s mind, wishing she could ask but not really sure if it was okay.

“Dance with me?” she suddenly asked. Glimmer could feel her face heat up.

“Where did that come from, Adora?” she asked teasingly, but looked away from her to hide her red face. She tried to ignore how her heart started tap dancing in her chest.

“Let me steal you away for a moment, Glimmer.” she said, before standing up and offering a hand to her. “It kinda feels like you need it.” The queen looked back at Adora for a moment, flickering her gaze to her hand then back to her eyes.

She was unsure whether she should. 

“It’s only a dance, Glimmer, it’s not like anything’s going to go wrong.” Adora said, reassuring her. 

“...Right.” Glimmer settled for, but she gave a shaky smile as she took Adora’s hand to her own. “Aren’t you a charmer.” Adora beamed back at her in response.

It was easy for the blonde to pull her up to her feet like she was nothing. She led her nearer to the dancing crowd, and for a moment Glimmer was nervous that the sounds would be too much and that she wouldn’t be able to dance with her. 

Then Adora held her hand in hers, clasping them together and Glimmer’s nervousness retreated. She hadn’t realized when the music had turned to something slow and gentle, but when she looked around, it seemed everyone else had been paired off in a slow waltz. She felt Adora rest her hand over her back in such a gentle manner that Glimmer couldn’t help but lean towards it. She in turn rested her hand over Adora’s shoulder. Her fingers trembled as it rested there, and Glimmer couldn’t stop it from shaking.

“I’m sorry if I step on your foot or something—” Adora said, bringing Glimmer’s eyes back to her and she had a sheepish expression on her face. “I still haven’t actually uh, mastered the waltz.” Glimmer shook her head.

“Don’t… don’t worry about it, Adora.” she said, looking up to her eyes. “You’re perfect.” she said, genuinely meaning it. Adora looked back at her strangely, and Glimmer wondered if that was too much. 

Then she smiled, and Glimmer’s entire body went warm and she could only look at her awestruck.

It was at that moment the music was something gentle and slow. Adora and her started gently dancing to the music and she was  _ so close, _ Glimmer could hardly breathe.

She found herself smiling as Adora danced with her, and the blonde could only smile back. The music filled her senses, her knees almost went weak but she pushed on as Adora twirled her. The world slowly melted away until she could only think about her and how she was dancing with  _ her.  _

“There she is.” she smiled, “You’re smiling.” Adora noted. Glimmer blinked, not really processing what she’d said.

“Why does that matter so much to you?” she asked, and she felt her throat go dry. 

“You’re my friend…” she said sincerely, “I don’t want to see you sad.” Glimmer tried not to show her expression fall, so she looked away from Adora. Getting disappointed by that was foolish. She knew what Adora thought of her.

“You know…” she started, ignoring the pit in her chest. “...That’s a tall order, Adora.” she said. She wondered if Adora would ever be able to figure out why.

Then she twirled her, making Glimmer’s cape twist around her, before Adora pulled her close to her chest again. “I’ve always beat the odds.” she said simply. The queen felt dizzy once more from the closeness.

Adora was so near, she could feel her warmth once more. 

She reminded herself not to get her hopes up. She wasn’t in her reach. The distance didn’t matter because she was still far away from her, no matter what.

She wasn’t looking at Adora but she could feel her staring at her.

“Hey. What’s wrong?” she asked, and the concerned tone made Glimmer’s heart ache. She slowly turned to face her once again.

She suddenly felt so tired.

“Adora…” she said, barely above a whisper. “Can I just do something real quick…?”

“Of course, Glimmer. Anything you need.” she said back in the low tone Glimmer used, and the queen could see how earnest her eyes were. Blue eyes searching her own, trying to figure out what was wrong, but being unable to. 

Glimmer’s heart felt like bursting for a moment, just realizing how this is all seeming to her. She didn’t even ask what she was going to do, she just agreed without hesitation. Adora was just so caring… so concerned for her, it felt like even though she saw her for who she was, she still cared for her.

She laid her head against Adora’s shoulder and closed her eyes. Adora’s hand moved to rest over her back, and there Glimmer stayed in her embrace. 

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/153305940@N07/50106267996/in/dateposted-public/)

For a moment she let herself imagine the sweetness of it all, of having Adora as hers. To be held like this because Adora wanted to. To be wrapped up in her arms and feel safe because Adora made her feel that. To allow herself to be close and vulnerable because Adora wouldn’t care about any flaws she might see.

The thought fluttered in her stomach, filling her with some kind of perverse security.

It wasn’t really hers to have but still she felt the blonde’s steady breathing ground her.

There had to be something ironic about the fact that the heartbreak she felt towards the girl holding her now was the only thing making her feel better. A bitter laughter almost escaped her throat.

She tried not to think about that. 

Slowly, she leaned away from Adora, and Glimmer could see her concerned expression. Leaning against Adora’s shoulder couldn’t have been more than a few seconds but she still felt bad for causing that, especially when the blonde was so determined in cheering her up. She tried to give her a smile.

“Thanks, Adora.” she said, but the blonde’s expression only turned confused.

“What did I do?” she asked.

“Exist?” she suggested, then she shook her head. “I don’t know. Thanks for dealing with my dumb feelings.”

“Hey.” she said, and Glimmer looked up to her eyes. “It’s no problem, alright?” she gave her hand a squeeze. “You can talk to me, any time.”

They swayed across the dancefloor, Adora gently leading her along in the waltz. Glimmer’s steps were light and Adora did occasionally step on her toes but she didn’t really mind. Murmured apologies were shared each time Adora did, and it wasn’t like she was going to put that against her.

Adora twirled her one last time, before pulling her close, back to her chest in a movement that made her dizzy. She felt so breathless, after dancing with Adora like that, that her mind barely had any thoughts. 

Her mind could only just about register a voice that piped up behind her.

“Adora.” someone said, and it was in such a sharp tone, that Glimmer could feel said blonde give a start. She recognized it, and it was like a bucket of cold water had been dumped on her, shocking her senses. Her head turned to the direction of the voice, and she saw Catra with a sour expression on her face walking towards them. Melog was beside her, stalking alongside.

“What are you doing?” she asked, and she and Melog were close enough that Glimmer could hear Melog give off a low growl, their mane a color of dark green.

“Um. Dancing with Glimmer?” Adora answered, in a confused tone. 

“Why?” she asked, before shaking her head. “You know what? Nevermind. Sparkles probably made you dance with her.” For a moment Glimmer couldn’t believe she actually said that.

“Well, actually—” Adora said, but the queen had already recollected enough of herself to speak up.

“Actually, she asked me to dance.” she spoke up annoyed, and it took a moment before Catra looked at her. When she did, her sour look only deepened.

“I’m not talking to you, I’m talking to my girlfriend.” Her eyes narrowed at her. She said it to her with such contempt, it was like she wasn’t worth talking to. 

“I’m right here…!” Glimmer said, and she almost stamped her foot. “What’s so weird about Adora asking  _ me _ to dance?” she almost demanded. Catra scoffed and rolled her eyes at her, building Glimmer’s irritability up.

“You probably guilted her or something.” she said, like the mere thought of Adora choosing Glimmer was ridiculous. Glimmer’s eye twitched.

“Adora can dance with whoever she wants to, you don’t  _ own _ her.” she said, stepping closer to Catra, whose expression just darkened in response. “What’s your problem, huh?”

“My problem is you, Sparkles!” she snapped, and her tail lashed angrily. She eyed Adora’s hand currently clasp in Glimmer’s grip and suddenly it occurred to Glimmer that maybe Catra was jealous. 

“Okay, time-out you two.” Adora said, letting go of Glimmer’s hand to put distance between the two of them. “What’s with the harsh tone? Where did that come from?” she glanced at Catra who glared at Glimmer for a moment, before looking back to Adora, her expression shifting to something less angry to something more annoyed.

“It’s nothing, Adora, it isn’t important.” she waved her hand off-handedly at Glimmer, which infuriated her.  _ ‘She isn’t important’ _ was what it felt like she said.

“Um, it kinda feels like it is—” Adora started, before Glimmer interrupted her.

“No, no, I’d like to hear what Catra was about to say.” Glimmer said, clenching her fists by her side. “You can say it to my face.” Catra raised her eyebrows at her. 

“Okay, Sparkles.” she said, finally turning to her with contempt in her eyes “I just think you’re just being completely annoying with how you’re acting with Adora. Y’know, like how you  _ own _ her.” she said mocking Glimmer’s words

“What’s  _ that _ supposed to mean?” Glimmer’s voice raised. Catra gave a harsh laugh.

“You keep assuming you know what’s happening in Adora’s mind, what’s best for her,” Catra said, “How are  _ you _ any better than what you’re saying I’m doing?” Catra’s voice grated in her mind, driving her up the wall.

“I’m not anything like you!”

“Oh yeah?” she scoffed, “Then I guess last night wasn’t anything like that?” she spat back. What was her deal? What brought that up?? Why was she so suddenly aggressive about it? Before Glimmer could retort with anything, Adora had spoken up.

“What, um… what’s Catra talking about?” she asked, looking between the two of them confused.

“Oh, nothing.” Catra said, crossing her arms. “Just threatened me last night, nothing important.”

“What…?” Adora said, surprised. “Why didn’t anyone tell me?” Catra’s tail flicked, and both of them looked at Glimmer. Glimmer could feel the guilt rising in her guts, but she hated that feeling so much. 

“It wasn’t uncalled for Adora! She’s the reason why my mom is gone, she was the one that pulled the lever!” she shouted. Something flashed across Adora’s face, as if she was remembering something unpleasant.

“But it’s different now! She’s different.” Adora said, moving to Catra’s side. “She’s changed, and she isn’t like that anymore.”

“No she hasn’t!” she shouted, and her blood boiled. Catra? Different? She was  _ still _ as annoying as she was when she’d first dealt with her, she was  _ still _ that annoying jerk that didn’t care about anyone’s feelings, at least anyone other than Adora. Glimmer almost scoffed at the idea of her changing. 

“Glim, come on…” Adora’s tone was gentle, but Glimmer wasn’t having any of it, she was too mad. The thought of Catra only continued to make her angrier and angrier.

“She’s still the same person she was when she was in the Horde!” she said, and Adora stiffened.

“You know she isn’t.” Adora said, “She’s been trying to become a better person—”

“Well, I don’t see it!”

“ _ Maybe _ if you actually gave her a chance, you could!” Adora finally snapped, finally raising her voice. “Don’t think I don’t notice how you’ve been so cold towards her, why do you think she’d  _ be _ nice if you don’t give her a chance?” Glimmer took a step back in shock. She didn’t expect that, staring wide-eyed at the blonde. 

“Give her a chance?” Glimmer slowly said, stepping closer to them. There was this dawning horror in her mind that Adora really didn’t care about the things Catra’s done in the past. “Give her a  _ chance?!”  _ she repeated a bit louder, shouting her words before pointing accusingly at Catra, “She’s  _ never _ even apologized to me! Why should I  _ ‘give her a chance’?!” _ she demanded. Her rage boiled over, and all she wanted to do was shout.

“Even  _ if _ my mother was still alive, what about Salineas huh?! Mermista’s  _ still _ rebuilding her kingdom because guess what, the HORDE brought it down to the ground! I never saw her apologize for that.” she said, and she paced around, letting all the thoughts she had earlier out. “I haven’t forgotten how she  _ kidnapped  _ me back in Princess Prom either. I haven’t heard any apologies for that either!”

“Glimmer—” Adora tried to say but Glimmer interrupted her before she could finish whatever she had intended to say. 

“And what about you?!” Glimmer asked, pointing to Adora, “I don’t get it! She’s kidnapped you too before! I don’t get how you don’t remember how she’s taunted you, how she’s fought you and left all kinds of scars. How you just forgive so easily just like that…!” Glimmer said, looking at Adora who finally paused from trying to speak over the queen. Her words had struck deep, and she was looking back at Glimmer with hurt and shocked eyes.

“You… you don’t know what you’re talking about.” she finally said, and Glimmer almost shook with frustration.

“Grah! You know what?” she yelled, and it felt like there were drips of hysteria dropping onto her psyche the longer she was there. “I don’t even care. I’ve thought about it way too much but I guess it was pointless when you don’t even care about it!” she said, the bitter truth stung to say, but that really was all there was to it. In the end, if Adora wanted to put aside everything Catra’s done, there wasn’t anything Glimmer could do. “but don’t expect  _ me _ to be nice when I don’t even feel like she’s earned it!” she said with such finality. She looked at Catra again who managed to glare at her for a moment before looking away. 

Guilty, was she? Serves her right! She doesn’t get to get away with it! She was always going to make sure she called her out against  _ whatever _ she thought she was going to get away with.

And Adora…? If she’s so convinced that Catra’s changed…?

Fine!

She didn’t care whether she stayed with her or not! She didn’t need her heart. It could ache all it wanted,  _ yearn _ for Adora, but if she wanted to stay with Catra after  _ everything? _

She wasn’t pathetic enough to subject herself to being satisfied with that. Especially when Adora insisted she’s changed. She didn’t need that in her life. 

Suddenly, it clicked in her mind, and everything finally made sense.

“I don’t need any of this.” she gestured vaguely to everything, “I don’t need  _ anyone _ to deal with the problems of  _ my _ kingdom!” she took a step back, skin glowing from a pink aura, indicating that magic was coursing through her body. 

“Glimmer…” she heard, and she turned to Adora who had spoken up, and her tone sounded pained. “Wait…”

“No! I’m not going to wait anymore, I wasn’t even supposed to be here!” she said, her voice still raised. “I was supposed to be here alone, but you insisted on coming!”

By now, a whole crowd was forming behind Adora and Catra, murmuring among themselves about what was happening between the trio. Glimmer hated to think about how the murmuring coming from them was probably about Glimmer. She hated the looks of pity she could see from their eyes, like she was just some hysterical girl overreacting.

“Now maybe I’m thinking I was right.” Glimmer said slowly, looking back to the couple. Adora looked alarmed.

“Glimmer, please! Let’s just talk about this—”

“I’m going to deal with the bandits  _ myself _ ,” she said, refusing to listen to Adora and turning away from everybody who’d started gawking. Her lips were set in a tight line, and she could only stare coldly ahead. “Don’t even bother following.” she warned, before she started running ahead.

“Glimmer!” Adora called out, but it was too late.

She had teleported away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really sorry that the chapter ended up super late, writings really hard .-. i just started drawing halfway and like, lost all drive to write because i just wanted to draw it. i feel like i ended up putting too much on that glimmadora scene but like... it was so good. speaking of, i even made a whole [ANIMATIC](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuCXES6r6ZU&feature=youtu.be) for it 
> 
> also!! i forgot to mention this but my friend had given me a shoutout in their fic [I Thought I Wanted This](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24865447/chapters/60156490) and i haven't fully caught up because reading is hard but its so good and i figure i should give a shout out here too. its got the same vibe of this fic but from adora's perspective and its endgame glimmadora. a++ content ;--;. ash if ur reading this ur amazing


	7. The Sailor Song

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Glimmer finds out it's easy to succumb to rage, and even easier to fall into numbness afterwards. In the process, she finds what she was looking for, whether she wants to or not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Think not with my heart but with my head, oh  
> But I never really had it in me, did I, did I?  
> No, I never really had it in me, did I? - The Sailor Song by Autoheart

Glimmer didn’t know where she was going.

A big part of her didn’t care where she ended up after teleporting, all she had thought at the time was _far away._

When she reappeared from teleporting, she stood alone at some abandoned Plumerian encampment. They weren’t all that rare considering it was common for villages or camps like these to be ransacked during the war, before Horde Prime was even a thing. It wasn’t just limited to Plumeria either, abandoned ghost towns like this were common everywhere. Heck, she remembered running into one the first time she had met Adora. 

The one back then didn’t have any big difference to the place where she was now. The huts scattered around her were falling apart, ripped to shreds by the onslaught of nature. Rubble surrounded her and scorch marks were everywhere on the dirt.

It was hard not to think about who could’ve lived here, and where they were now. She hoped for the best but… the Horde never left anyone unscathed. Glimmer had no doubt that the people who lived here now were probably dead, or scarred for life.

Her expression turned grim as she started walking ahead to try to find another settlement that wasn’t a ghost town. 

Now that she _had_ teleported, all she could think about was how Adora looked like before she left. How her shocked and hurt eyes seemed to bore into her soul when she’d snapped. It felt like pins were stabbing into her heart at the thought, and it almost made her falter. 

She tried to stop thinking about that.

Instead she tried to force her thoughts to Catra. It felt immensely satisfying to tell her off. It felt so good to _finally_ let her thoughts out, and to push it to her smug face that _she_ hadn’t forgotten about the things that’ve happened in the past. 

It filled her with fury to think after all this time, people thought things were all fine and dandy. That after all the chaos that happened in defeating Horde Prime, she wouldn’t be mad. She couldn’t believe that she held it in for so long, or maybe it was the fact that she deluded herself into thinking people haven't forgotten.

That Adora hadn’t forgotten...

A growl of frustration escapes her when her mind went back to the blonde. It was pointless to think about her! Every time Adora had a choice between her and Catra, she always chose Catra. Always moved to her side when she came, always came to her defense. Not even when it really mattered, she _still_ chose her. Glimmer knew she what she had said was justified, Bow did too, so why didn’t she?!

Jealousy scraped against her mind like sandpaper, and she almost sneered. After that whole argument just now, Glimmer doubted Adora would even care about her now. Not when she had _Catra_. They could live together forever in disillusionment for all she cared. It was her stupid brain that wouldn’t let her go, even when she knew she should. 

Her heart shriveled up further, and she took that thought and tucked it far inside her mind. A fire inside her burned, burning away the frost that had grown over her heart. It was an angry, unforgiving fire, one that burned so hotly that she wanted to make something else _burn_ with her.

Her steps were almost like stomps as she marched closer to the edge of the encampment. The sky was now just full of stars, an unfamiliar sight, but one she could hardly care about now in the heat of the moment. She brought a hand up to ignite a bright sparkle in her palm. She could see broken and almost unrecognizable Horde bots splayed across the ground, and the only reason she was able to identify them was through the angry red insignia of the Horde on the bot in front of her, very much visibly displayed on the front. 

Roots and vines had grown over most, but the one in front of her looked like the most visible.

Looking at it just made her angrier. It reminded her why everything wasn’t fine, of the awful atrocities that had happened during the war, and the reason why she was even _Queen_ in the first place. She narrowed her eyes at the offending bot, and the sparkle in her hand grew brighter. 

How could everyone forget? Why was she the only one that wasn’t happy or satisfied? It made her feel crazy, seeming like the only one who was affected. Even angrier too to be the only one speaking up. It made her blood boil and she sneered at the bot. After all the devastation caused by war, in the end abandoned towns like these were left to crumble away to dust, forgotten by time. Left to fester on the land like large ugly scars hiding its dark past away from the world.

Her sparkle crackled in her hand, almost begging to be thrown. 

The fact that this thing was just allowed to be left to crumble away on its own infuriated her. It should’ve been destroyed a long time ago, obliterated to pieces! It didn’t deserve to have its respite of being forgotten, not when it had hurt so many people in its prime. Glimmer wanted to take it apart, piece by piece, and destroy it until nothing was left. She wanted to hurt it so bad, to return the favor of hurting others and see how it liked that. 

This awful machine had represented every reason why she was so bitter, and just seeing it allowed to rot away in peace made her indescribably mad.

With an angry roar, she threw the bomb at the bot, bursting to an even brighter spark that was so blinding it felt hot. She heard it before she saw it, the bot creaking and groaning under the magical pressure before collapsing inwards. When the light faded away and the glare of it gone from her eyes, she was left alone in the darkness. 

Her knees shook and she collapsed to the ground. The dirt scraped against her knees and she felt numb. She felt a drop of wetness fall on her thigh and for a moment she thought she was crying before more drops like those started falling. She stared, confused at the drops appearing on her thigh before she realized.

It was raining.

More drops started falling on her as it started pouring and she could only stare at the ruins of the machine. She stayed there until water had soaked her clothes and a chill in her bones slowly became more and more notable until she couldn’t ignore it anymore. 

She couldn’t get the will to get up and care about herself. 

What was the point? Bow was wrong about Adora. She didn’t understand and Glimmer was right to be anxious. It was like all her worst fears had come true and all the energy in her was drained out with that realization. Nobody else cared about what happened in the past, nobody else was angry about it. 

She was alone.

This had been the first time in a long time she felt truly alone. Bow was like a constant to her but he wasn’t here now. She couldn’t even feel a drip of guilt of just leaving him there in Plumeria because she felt so tired. She knew that was messed up. What kind of friend wouldn’t feel guilty about just leaving like that? She knew she should’ve felt guilty but maybe this was a sign she didn’t deserve him. 

She wouldn’t be surprised. She didn’t feel like she deserved a lot of things anyway. 

Her thoughts flickered back to Adora again for a brief moment.

She had always been that person that cared, always so conscious of doing the right thing. She hadn’t been there as long as Bow but she’s seen so much of her grow and change into the person she was now, and it was hard to see life without her. 

She remembered how one time her words had cut through her anger because she said she needed her there.

Not wanted, _needed_ , like her presence was something more than valuable to Adora. Bow had never said anything like that to her, and there was practically no one else that would ever say anything like that to her. 

The way Adora had said it, pleaded it to her, stirred something in her. No one else had ever wanted her more than in that moment… Now she just felt so empty, like there was a hole in her chest, trying to inhale everything that was her. 

More drops of rain fell on her lap.

What was the point of all this heartache if it just hurt? What was the point of caring this much when no one else did? 

She thought Adora would. Care, that is. She always did, in the past. She’s always tried to do good recklessly, tried to see the best in people or believe that there was a flicker of goodness in them. 

She never just… let things go.

Maybe it was dumb to think Adora wouldn’t just forget, or that she would understand her frustrations. Maybe this was just the sign that Glimmer needed to confirm something she’d been dreading. 

That Adora just didn’t care anymore. All the hurt and pain that Glimmer still thought about, the grief and devastation she literally has to handle and deal with everyday as queen of a war torn kingdom. All of that was just… not in her thoughts.

Somehow, through the numbness she was feeling, that thought had stung.

Weariness settled onto her bones, feeling as present as the chill of the rain. She felt defeated, tired, and miserable. She just wanted everything to stop, even for just a moment.

As she stared numbly at the broken fragment of the demolished bot, she thought about how much she missed her mother.

-

She didn’t know how long she had stayed there under the rain, though it couldn’t have been more than a few minutes. Distantly, her brain started to register the sound of voices walking towards her, though it hadn’t completely hit her that there were people approaching.

“...some crazy lightning! Like, somewhere over there.” some boy’s voice had said. A person…? Glimmer couldn’t fathom a reason why anybody would be here. This place felt dead and lonely.

“I swear, if you made us walk in the rain for completely no reason, we’re making you do maintenance for the rest of the week.” another voice said, this time, a girl. The boy with her only responded in a grumble.

“No, I swear! A big flash of white and then rain!”

“You idiot, if there was lightning why didn’t any of us hear _thunder??_ ” she said exasperated to which he spluttered a response. 

Glimmer’s finger twitched, and the sound of approaching footsteps slowly snapped her out of whatever funk she was feeling. She shivered, seemingly just realizing the chill of the rain again, and looked around, trying to find the source of the voice. She could see a ray of light coming from what she presumed was a flashlight approaching around the corner. Her mind slowly started to start up again.

She teleported to a nearby spot, behind a broken hut, just in time for the talking voices to turn around the corner. It turned out to be three familiar figures that Glimmer couldn’t for the life of her recall where she saw them from. 

Huddled under one big fabric to act as an umbrella was a trio, one big hulking figure of a lizard man holding up the wet fabric while two humans, a girl with dark skin, her dreadlocks tied in a ponytail, and a fairer skinned boy with messy blonde hair looking around, were on either sides.

“If you literally made us walk in the pouring rain for nothing…” the girl warned, and the boy straightened up, evidently intimidated by the unfinished threat. He looked around frantically before pointing to the remains of the bot Glimmer had destroyed.

“See! What else could have done that other than lightning?” he asked, and the girl raised her eyebrows.

“This is literally a graveyard of BOTS,” she said, crossing her arms.

“No, look—!” he insisted, before running out of the cover to the bot.

“Kyle—!” the girl said in protest, and the large lizard man also gave a sound of alarm as his friend ran off. Glimmer’s eyes widened as she finally recognized the trio. She remembered fighting against them before, when the Horde on Etheria was her only problem before. What were _they_ doing here?

Both the girl and the big lizard man— _Lonnie?_ Glimmer thought she heard once, though she didn’t know what the bigger guy’s name was, jogged over to Kyle, who had knelt over the bot. 

“You can’t tell me this thing was _always_ like this,” he protested, turning to look at them while gesturing to the bot, “There are black marks all over it, that can’t be normal.” he said. Lonnie leered at Kyle suspiciously then crossed her arms. 

“It’s just a b—” she said, half-looking at the bot before she straightened up. For a moment, she studied it before a more alarmed look came to her face. She looked around, flashing her light to dark areas, and her eyes almost landed on Glimmer but she had ducked just in time. 

“What is it?” Kyle asked, and Glimmer tried to strain her ears further to hear them over her heart beating hard against her chest.

“I think Kyle was right—” Lonnie said.

“I was right?” Kyle asked, before backtracking, “I mean yeah, of course I’m right. I _told_ you there was lightning!”

“Not about that!” Lonnie denied loudly, and Glimmer had peeked over her hiding spot again to see her facing Kyle and him wincing from her reaction. She turned around again, giving a sigh, before a serious look came to her face. 

“Whatever did this…” she said, reaching behind her to get what suspiciously looked like one of the stun batons Horde soldiers used to have, “... wasn’t lightning.” she finished, stepping farther away from the bot, searching cautiously in the dark. “Watch out for anything suspicious.” she said, and the two guys nodded, not even questioning her command. The lizard man offered a hand to Kyle who took it gratefully.

“What um, what are we looking for again, exactly?” Kyle asked, as he tried to look around.

“Just anything that sticks out,” she answered, before looking behind her to face both of them. “Rogelio, you go check over there. My eyes aren’t as good as yours.” she pointed to Glimmer’s direction.

Rogelio nodded, before folding the tarp he was using as an umbrella and standing to his full height. 

_Oh_. He was one big guy, that’s for sure. Glimmer hadn’t realized he was hunched over the two to provide a cover. They all began looking around but she wasn’t even sure why they were all so wary in the first place. She decided to wait for a bit, maybe she’d find out more that way. She wasn’t scared of Rogelio finding her either, it wasn’t like it was her first time fighting against anyone bigger than her.

“I really hope it’s nothing…” Kyle said, his tone was nervous. He had turned to the opposite direction Lonnie was facing so Glimmer couldn’t see what he was looking at.

“I _knew_ we’ve been too reckless.” Lonnie said, “We’re gonna have to tell Octavia and the rest of the captains about this later.” There was a chorus of groans and grumbles from the two guys. Glimmer’s thoughts raced. Captains? That meant there were more of them… A thought formed in her head, and she frowned.

Rogelio started making his way closer and closer to Glimmer’s spot.

“Awh, but I really liked this spot.” Kyle said, and a grunt of agreement came from Rogelio, who turned his head to his direction. “We were doing a pretty good job of surviving here...” Lonnie’s expression softened, before she walked nearer to Rogelio to place a hand against his back.

“I know guys.” she said, before looking out again. “But it’s better safe than sorry. We can’t be too careful around here, the moment _one_ princess finds out about us, we’re screwed.”

Huh? That couldn’t be right. Don’t they know princesses _help_ people? She considered for a moment to get out of her hiding spot and set things straight for them. Etheria was peaceful now, it didn’t make sense for princesses of _any_ kingdom to be hostile without good reason.

“Yeaaah…” Kyle said, stretching out the word, “They’re not gonna be, um... Happy with us kind of… invading villages…” he said, scratching his the side of his head

Glimmer’s eye twitched.

As soon as Kyle had said that, Lonnie had whipped around faster than a bolt and thrown her flashlight at him with pinpoint accuracy. It hit him on his head and he gave a surprised yelp, before rubbing the spot the flashlight had hit him on. 

“Just announce it to the world then, doofus!” Lonnie shouted, and Kyle shrunk back. 

It should’ve connected faster in Glimmer’s mind, ex-Horde soldiers with weapons from the Horde in the same area as the reported bandit attacks...

“Whatever did that to the bot was powerful! They’re probably still here and who knows who they are!” Lonnie continued exclaiming.

These were the bandits she had been searching for.

Glimmer’s face darkened. She stood up, completely surprising Rogelio who stumbled back and gave a surprised growl. 

“For all we know it could be—!”Lonnie turned around to see Glimmer from her spot, her eyes widening. “A… a princess.” 

There was a moment where she just stared at Glimmer, completely at a loss for what to do.

“A Princess?” Glimmer asked, cracking her knuckles, “Would you settle for a Queen instead?”

Lonnie was the first one to recover from her shock, running forward to jab her stun baton at Glimmer. Having not expected it, it connected to Glimmer’s torso, sending painful electrical shock all over her body. She gave a cry of pain, her muscles spasming to the electricity coursing through her.

“You guys know what to do!” Lonnie said, turning away from the queen. Through the pain, Glimmer managed to grasp the stun rod, forcing Lonnie’s eyes back on her. Despite wincing from the burning sensation of the baton, she managed to look back, as if challenging Lonnie if this was the best she had.

“You’re gonna have to do… better than this!” she said, sending her own electrical pulse back to the girl who yelped in pain. She backed off, cursing under her breath, before jumping back in again to swipe her baton. Glimmer leaned back just in time, but it was so close, she could feel the pulse of electricity crackle in the few centimeters of air the baton had missed her. 

She teleported off to her side, startling the other girl enough that she had dropped her baton and was able to tackle her.

They both almost fell, but Lonnie pushed back with her strength and with a grunt, managed to stand her ground. They both wrestled for a moment, trying to overpower the other. Lonnie managed to land a punch to her side, knocking Glimmer’s breath out of her. 

She wheezed, bracing herself for another hit, anticipating Lonnie to try to land a few more punches, but it never came. She blinked, trying to focus back to Lonnie who had gone to pick up her baton again. She made for another swipe at Glimmer, effectively stunning her, before backing up again.

“Is this all you’ve got?” Lonnie challenged, “I thought you guys were supposed to be tougher than this?” she said, smirking. Her free hand came up to make a _come here_ gesture that ticked Glimmer off.

“Not even half of it!” she shouted, before summoning up a bright ball of sparkles in her hand. She threw it at her, forcing her to close her eyes from the sudden brightness in her face. She waved her arms around, trying to swat away all the glitter in her face, and Glimmer took the chance to jump at her again. She ended up riding against her back, and Lonnie stumbled from the sudden weight.

“Get off me!” she said, and Glimmer held on for dear life as Lonnie started trying to shake her off her back. She tried to hold on tighter, but Lonnie managed to slam her against a dead tree, knocking Glimmer’s air out of her lungs. Her grip slackened around her, but Glimmer grit her teeth, not wanting to go down without more of a fight, grabbed her hair and gave it a hard tug. Lonnie gave a screech of pain and they both went tumbling down to the ground.

They both landed on their backs, bodies aching from all the blows. Mud clung to their bodies, weighing them down. Glimmer’s knees shook as she slowly got up, and Lonnie had used her baton to help her up. Lonnie stared at her, an intense expression on her face, presumably sizing her up. Up above, the rain started letting up a bit, turning into a slow drizzle.

Suddenly all the air was knocked out of Glimmer as she was tackled unexpectedly by a large green figure. Lonnie, too, apparently had not expected it as her surprised face was the last thing Glimmer saw before being knocked back to the dead tree. The queen stared up at the large green hulking figure, slightly a bit more intimidated being _under_ him. 

“What are you guys doing here!” Lonnie demanded, “You were supposed to run _away_ from here, not stay!” What did _that_ mean? Was she trying to distract her?? Rogelio turned to her direction, giving a growl that apparently she understood because she groaned in response. 

“I was handling it perfectly fine, you—” Lonnie retorted, and Glimmer took the chance to teleport out of Rogelio’s grasp and back out in the open. They both stared at her blankly, and Glimmer noticed Kyle was actually beside Lonnie, fawning over her.

“You guys have ten seconds to explain or—” Glimmer was cut short by Lonnie swiping her legs underneath her, making Glimmer lose her footing and fall down to the mud. She cursed, and when she looked up the trio had taken the chance to make a break for it.

What was their deal???

Glimmer teleported again right in front of them, but they only ran past her. Frustration started building up in her as she started chasing after them.

“Come back here!” she demanded, readying a sparkle bomb in her palm, throwing it and barely missing the group. Kyle had given a really high squeak, glancing behind him to see Glimmer on the warpath to get them.

“G-guys,” he said, and Glimmer could just about hear him, “I think she’s mad…!” 

“I’m glad you noticed!” Lonnie said, her tone coming off sarcastic. “We gotta reach the others…!” 

By now after all that chasing, all of them weren’t at the abandoned encampment anymore, but instead some place that somehow looked even more dreary than the ghost town they were in. 

From what Glimmer could see in the darkness of night, the mud beneath them had turned dirty and grey, like a large amount of people had been through in the area recently. Lots of trampled plants and tree stumps were dotted around the area.

Up ahead, she saw a makeshift building, not unlike the Horde outposts she used to try to push back against. It was slowly growing in size the more she got closer to it, and it reminded her of the dirty, unsafe atmosphere of the Fright Zone. Glimmer frowned, she hadn’t liked what she was seeing. She had to get to the bottom of this now.

Glimmer teleported again right in front of them, throwing a sparkle bomb in front of them, forcing them to stop.

“Agh!” Lonnie yelled, hands coming up instinctively to her eyes. Rogelio gave a surprised grunt and Kyle tripped and fell down to the dirt.

“No more running!” Glimmer exclaimed, readying up another sparkle bomb in her hand. It came out breathless, and she tried to catch her breath after all that running, “Make… make one more step and you’re getting it!” The trio froze in their positions. “Just… give me a minute.” she said, panting.

After she felt like her lungs weren’t burning, Glimmer took that moment to study her surroundings. The sparkle in her hand illuminated brightly enough to see the huts and tents all around her, surrounding the giant wall adorned in vines and flowers.

The familiarity struck Glimmer so hard, she struggled to remember why it seemed so important. It felt like she’d been here before, but she couldn’t think of why.

“Okay!” she finally said, “Care to explain just exactly _what_ you meant by invading?” she asked, her voice sharp. There was a moment where all of them had hesitated before answering, but Lonnie was the first one to speak.

“I don’t know why I should explain it to _you_.” she said, with an intense gaze. Rogelio made a move, and Glimmer almost reacted by throwing her sparkle bomb, but it was just to help Kyle up from the mud.

“I can think of a pretty good reason.” she said back, showing off what she held in her palm.

Lonnie’s reaction to that was completely different to what Glimmer expected. She held a stare for a moment, before busting out a smug grin. Her posture relaxed, and she rested the baton she was holding over her shoulder.

“Don’t need to explain anything, _your Majesty_ .” she said, smirking. “You’re outnumbered.” Glimmer scoffed. As if she hadn’t been outnumbered before. Did they forget _magic powers_??

“I can take all of you on.” Glimmer challenged, giving her best death glare to Lonnie. To prove her point, the sparkle in her hand shined brighter, going as far to even crackle energy like electricity in her palm.

“Maybe us three…” Lonnie conceded, looking at her teammates for a moment, before looking back, “But how ‘bout a whole army?” She gestured behind her, and a chill went down Glimmer’s spine. That… did not sound good.

She almost felt frozen, but she could just about turn her head to look behind her, and she felt her gut drop.

She had found the bandits she was looking for.

Behind her were the legions of ex-Horde soldiers, some armed with zappers, all eyes trained on her. Some had been wearing armor, others wearing clothes similar to what Lonnie, Kyle and Rogelio were wearing. She hadn’t noticed them in the darkness, but with the sparkle in her hand finally illuminating everything, she saw people hiding behind the huts, or on top of the wall, looking down.

She had run smack dab in the middle of their base.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i.... made art for this.... but i didn't like it so i didnt stick it in the fic. you'll find it on my tumblr ([Check it here.](https://paperjamz.tumblr.com/post/624553815557947392/a-shot-from-my-fic-which-ill-put-the-link-in-the)  
> ) if you wanna see it. sorry for the delay :-(, i also had to add one more chapter because..... this one felt long already and .... i just wanted to be done kJFSKJKDJ. i hope u enjoyed regardless!! <3

**Author's Note:**

> stay tuned for next week for the next chapter! i promise i really promise it will be weekly HAHA and please comment your thoughts/reactions!!


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